Confucius Institute tag shows US pettiness
The US Department of State on Thursday decided to designate the Confucius Institutes US Center as a foreign mission. David Stilwell, a top US diplomat in East Asia, said the US is not looking to close the country’s Confucius Institutes, but “would ask that universities, again, take a hard look at what those institutes are doing on their campuses.” However, putting the “foreign mission” label on Confucius Institutes will surely lead to the institutes facing more controversy in the US, and undermine the enthusiasm of universities in the US to cooperate with them.
The US has found faults with Confucius Institutes for quite a long time. Some US senators have promoted suppression and crackdowns on certain institutes in their respective constituencies. However, demanding that Confucius Institutes must register as foreign missions is likely to have an extensive and long-term impact.
The move follows the US’ recent crackdown on Chinese media outlets in the country and the enforced shutdown of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston. It is another step taken by the US to “decouple” from China in the field of people-to-people exchanges and it has an opportunistic motive – that is, it aims to maintain China-US tension by creating new disputes between the two countries for the sake of this year’s presidential election.
The attack on Confucius Institutes is a typical example of how the US is oversensitive to politicize everything. The learning centers help Americans learn Putonghua as well as basic Chinese culture, satisfying the demands of a growing number of people in the US. Some US political elites have created all the noise by accusing Confucius Institutes of penetrating US universities and sabotaging freedom of speech. This claim has astonished the Chinese people. How can the institutes penetrate the US by teaching Americans to speak Putonghua, sing Chinese songs, make dumplings and learn Tai Chi? Is it because American students don’t scold China at classes partly funded by the Chinese side? Does this undermine freedom of speech?
If China really had any consideration other than teaching about increasing the number of institutes in the US, its simple wish is to cultivate the goodwill of US society in relation to China so it could create a favorable atmosphere for the healthy development of bilateral relations. This is not something that needs to be hidden. Is it not right that China shows goodwill to improve China-US relations?
The US is the most petty-minded of all big powers. Many Western countries have Confucius Institutes, but only the US, the world’s sole superpower, feels threatened. Where is the US’ confidence? Where is its cultural tolerance?
Chinese people used to believe the US, as a superpower, had a special level of openness and inclusiveness. Now our impressions are being constantly subverted. The US is more vigilant than China in many aspects. Take the field of telecommunications: If China were as vigilant as the US, China wouldn’t have developed the way it has and would be too scared to sleep.
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Central and Eastern Europe promoting an anti-China alliance, the Department of State he leads put a new label on Confucius Institutes. It seems Pompeo is taking the promotion of a new cold war as his personal career goal. He may be hoping that “Pompeo’s Cold War” be written in future history textbooks. But what he is doing is against the development of the world. His actions will only leave a stain on history.