Australian Foreign Interference Laws, US Senate Report Latest Blows Against Declining Confucius Institutes

Last week’s news that institutes in Australia may be subject to the country’s newly-enforced foreign influence transparency laws was the latest in a series of blows against CIs in recent years.

The Confucius Institute Building on the Troy University Campus in Alabama on March 16, 2018 Kreeder13 via Wikimedia Commons

In his testimony to Toronto’s school board on the issue of partnering with China’s Confucius Institute in 2014, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior manager with Canada’s intelligence agency, said the Beijing-run institutes are on the decline in Canada.

In 2013, the number of Canadian educational institutions partnering with Confucius Institutes (CI) was 14, including the Toronto District School Board, which had inaugurated its CI but eventually shut it down due to protests by the community. After the New Brunswick Department of Education goes ahead with plans to close its CI in June 2019, that number will stand at 11.