Public University Gives Chinese Communists Funding, Exclusive Rights to Intellectual Concepts

In the midst of a human rights crisis and violent pro-democracy manifestations in China, Judicial Watch has obtained records that expose a troubling partnership between a public American university and the Chinese Communists at the heart of the abuses. The records show that the University of Arizona (UA), a taxpayer-funded institution with an enrollment of about 44,000, paid $100,000 to launch a Confucius Institute on its Tucson campus more than a decade ago and subsequently dedicated nearly $2 million and other public resources to keep it going.

Confucius Institutes were founded by the Chinese government and are managed by China’s Ministry of Education to spread Communist ideas. FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned in congressional testimony that Confucius Institutes provide a platform to disseminate Chinese Communist Party propaganda, encourage censorship and restrict academic freedom.

Yet dozens of universities throughout the U.S. have erected Confucius Institutes in the last few years, though many have closed over national security concerns and pressure from the Trump administration. This year the U.S. government finally upped the ante, threatening to withhold generous Department of Defense (DOD) language program funding to schools with Confucius Institutes. UA is among the campuses that reportedly will shut down its Confucius Institute at the end of the year to keep its DOD money, but the school’s longtime support for the Communist program cannot be erased from the ledgers.

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