China hits back at US over ‘foreign missions’

China has accused the United States of trying to “demonise and stigmatise” relations between the two countries, in an attack on the Trump administration’s designation of Chinese-funded language and culture programmes in the US as foreign missions of the Chinese Communist Party.

Branches of the Confucius Institute at US schools and colleges are a “bridge and link to help people from all over the world learn Chinese, understand China and strengthen educational and cultural exchanges between China and other countries,” a oreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.

He claimed the accusations against the institutes were without basis and motivated by “ideological prejudice and self-interest”.

The designation requires the Confucius Institute US Centre in Washington to submit reports to the government about its funding, personnel, curriculum and other activities in the US.

“We’re not kicking them out. We’re just highlighting the fact that these folks do work for the ministry of education of the Communist Party,” assistant secretary of state for east Asia and Pacific affairs David Stilwell said.