According to the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Anja Karliczek, the Federal Minister of Education and Research, has called for the termination of all Confucius Institutes in Germany.
Karliczek has written a letter to the German Rectors’ Conference and to the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. She advises to reassess the roles of Confucius Institutes in German higher education and to draw the right conclusions.
The Confucius Institutes at the universities of Duisburg-Essen and Hanover received wide attention last week, as a planned online lecture about a book on the head of state, Xi Jinping, was canceled because of the intervention of Chinese government representatives.
Karliczek writes that for some time she has been “very concerned” with the activities of the 19 Confucius Institutes at German universities. Their influence on the work at the universities is “unacceptable.” The minister recommends that universities “carefully analyze their cooperation with institutes” and “resolutely counter China’s influence.”
Karliczek said that, In addition, universities should maintain closer contact with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service,.
Confucius institutes, installed at the university campuses of many Western countries as a Chinese language teaching facility, are considered a propaganda and infiltration tool of the Chinese Communist Party.
Der Spiegel commented that university policy falls into the purview of the individual federal states. It is a matter of concern when a German federal minister expresses explicit concerns and criticism over with the work of universities and their cooperation agreements.
Source: Radio France International, October 31, 2021
https://rfi.my/7sNG