Some Canadian Institutions Continue to Host China’s Confucius Institute Despite Latest Revelations

Toronto Chinese Consulate allegedly transferred $1 million to ‘proxy groups’ to support CI program in city’s school board system in 2014, report says

A view of the Confucius Institute building on the Troy University campus in Troy, Alabama, on March 16, 2018. (Kreeder13 via Wikimedia Commons)

Some Canadian educational institutions continue to host Confucius Institutes (CI) despite a growing trend in North America and other parts of the world in which schools and universities are cutting ties with the program, which is funded and controlled by the Chinese regime.

The Epoch Times recently emailed nine institutions whose websites indicate they are still hosting CIs, in light of a recent report by Global News that the Toronto Chinese Consulate allegedly transferred $1 million to “proxy groups” to organize protests in support of CIs at the Toronto District School Board back in 2014.

The institutions were asked whether they would continue to host the program in light of this new revelation.

Four schools that confirmed retaining the program were Edmonton Public Schools, University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan, and Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) in B.C. said it continues to offer after-school language and culture courses via its partnership with South China Normal University, which previously supported CI.

Renison University College affiliated with the University of Waterloo in Ontario confirmed its contract with CI ended last October and “is not being renewed.”

As of Dec. 11, however, CI webpages and a profile of the director-in-charge still appear on Renison’s website. The Epoch Times asked on Nov. 18 about another CI webpage on the college’s website. A spokesman replied that it was an “oversight,” and he would “see that the page is removed.” That page has since been removed.

Three of the institutions hosting CIs did not respond to a request for comment: Seneca College in Toronto, Carleton University in Ottawa, and Dawson College in Montreal.

Beijing Ties

Confucius Institutes are funded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and have been accused of operating as a propaganda arm of the regime.

Although they are branded as an educational and cultural program by Beijing, they have been cited by intelligence agencies as being part of the CCP’s propaganda tools to exert influence abroad and control campus activities to the regime’s liking.

Former New Brunswick Education Minister Dominic Cardy testified before the Commons Canada-China committee last June that the program contains an overt political agenda that includes denying the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, having students draw maps erasing Taiwan’s border with China, and disciplining students who raised questions about the CCP’s human rights abuses.

Cardy added, “We had members of the Chinese Communist Party who were working for the Confucius Institute who have access to the databases and student information of New Brunswick students.”

His comments aligned with those of Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior manager with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who said in 2014 that many Western counter-intelligence agencies have identified CIs as “forms of spy agencies” used by the regime.

In 2013, McMaster University closed its CI after the institute refused to remove clauses that violate human rights in its hiring practices for teachers who would end up working in Canada. A clause in CI’s hiring contract for teachers stipulates that they can’t practice Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation discipline severely persecuted by the Chinese regime.

The following year, after an outcry by many parents and human rights activists, the Toronto District School Board dropped its plan to host the controversial CI program.

Responses

Edmonton Public Schools said their partnership with CI is “rooted in providing cultural and language supports” to students who enrolled in their bilingual program.

“The Confucius Institute does not directly offer programming in our schools in the traditional sense; rather, it supports the Chinese (Mandarin) Bilingual programming in 14 Division schools,” said spokeswoman Veronica Jubinville.

“This programming is under the direction of Alberta certificated teachers and principals and aligns with the province’s Education Act and the Alberta Program of Studies.”

The University of Regina said it has recently undertaken a review of its agreement with Hunan University, a public university in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, China.

“We are anticipating renewing the agreement to maintain the Confucius Institute, but with some modifications to ensure transparency,” said spokeswoman Everett Dorma, adding that CI’s operation “shall be in full compliance with the policies and regulations of the U of R.”

“The Institute is a non-academic unit offering primarily cultural programs that are exclusively non-credit in nature and is funded with support from the U of R and Hunan University,” she said.

The University of Saskatchewan said it believes its relationship with CI “can transcend even profound political differences.”

“We are committed to advancing the free exchange of ideas among academics, irrespective of governmental policies and practices, in order to fulfill our educational mission,” spokeswoman Victoria Dinh wrote.

Dinh added that the agreements with CI, via Beijing Institute of Technology, mandate that the university “maintains control over the hiring, curriculum and academic practices of the CI” and that the program offered non-credit courses.

“Courses taught through the CI are not part of our USask academic programs,” she said. “Bearing in mind geo-political realities, we continue to monitor our relationship with the Confucius Institute.”

Margaret Murphy, spokeswoman of Saint Mary’s University, said the contract with CI is “part way through” a five year term last renewed in 2020, and will be reviewed in the final year.

She said the agreement was signed with Xiamen University, situated in the province of Fujian, China.

“Courses offered at this institute are separate from university courses and, as such, are not university accredited,” she said. “This institute is not involved in academic matters at the university.”

Coquitlam School District said there wasn’t any contract to renew with CI as Hanban, the government body that had run the institutes, has ceased operating.

On July 5, 2020, the CCP-owned tabloid Global Times reported that CIs’ operations worldwide would be coordinated by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation instead of its predecessor Hanban.

“There was no contract to ‘renew’ as the institute headquarters in China is now closed,” said Coquitlam spokesman Ken Hoff.

“The Chinese Language and Cultural Institute in Coquitlam continues to offer afterschool language and culture courses to interested residents of Coquitlam and the surrounding municipalities,” Hoff wrote.

“The institute in Coquitlam is a non-governmental and non-profit organization supported via partnership with South China Normal University and there is no intention to close the institute.”

‘After Confucius Institutes’

Doris Liu, producer of the documentary “In the Name of Confucius,” told The Epoch Times that “[schools have] been using the ‘closure’ of Hanban to shield their partnership with CI so as to shrug away any criticism.”

“The new organization replacing Hanban is still under the PRC education ministry. It is not clear how this new organization operates,” she said.

“On the other hand, the CCP continues to export its influence on educational institutes abroad through Chinese universities which have established partnerships with these host institutes. The only difference is that this new organization is not called Confucius Institute, and instead of being directed by Hanban, it’s directed by Hanban’s replacement.”

Liu’s observations are consistent with the findings of the National Association of Scholars, a New York-based non-profit organization. Its report, titled “After Confucius Institutes: China’s Enduring Influence on American Higher Education,” notes that “colleges and universities continue to host Chinese-funded programs, similar to Confucius Institutes, under new names even after public and legislative scrutiny.”

“Many once-defunct Confucius Institutes have since reappeared in other forms,” the report said.

“Institutions have entered new sister university agreements with Chinese universities, established ‘new’ centers closely modeled on defunct Confucius Institutes, and even continued to receive funding from the same Chinese government agencies that funded the Confucius Institutes.”

Communist China

Canada’s relationship with China has soured in recent years, particularly after the CCP arbitrarily detained Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on Dec. 10, 2018. Their detention came nine days after Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1, 2018, on a U.S. extradition request.

Widely viewed as being victims of Beijing’s “hostage diplomacy,” Kovrig and Spavor were released last September after Meng, who was charged with bank and wire fraud relating to violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department on Sept. 24, 2021.

China also continues its suppression of ethnic and religious groups such as Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Christians. Beijing’s appetite for global dominance is also displayed in its oppressive approach in handling pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, as well as military aggression in the Indo-Pacific region and the Taiwan Strait.

Last month, Canada’s Department of National Defence confirmed Chinese military jets intercepted a Royal Canadian Air Force plane a number of times during its latest U.N.-sanctioned mission in East Asia to monitor sanctions against North Korea.

Noé Chartier and Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.