UH Manoa ‘Confucius Institute’: Chinese Communist Party Influence in Hawaii

CI Wiki: A New York Times article quotes Arthur Waldron, a professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania, that the key issue is academic independence. "Once you have a Confucius Institute on campus, you have a second source of opinions and authority that is ultimately answerable to the Chinese Communist Party and which is not subject to scholarly review."[52]

Global Times of China (CCP owned): To date, the Confucius Institute-UHM’s partner university, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) has sent 13 co-directors, teachers and volunteers to take up terms of one to two years at the CI-UHM. All have been warmly welcomed by the university, the local schools, and the community. Through their interactions with the Americans, both sides have learned much more about each other, and have forged friendly relations in the process.

The CI-UHM has helped with the teaching of foreign languages in Hawaii in general and of Chinese in particular, mainly in two ways.

The first is by co-sponsoring the annual Hawaii Association of Language Teachers (HALT) conferences and organizing Chinese language teacher trainings. With sponsorship from the CI-UHM, HALT has been able invite nationally known foreign language educators and researchers as keynote speakers of the annual conferences.

The second is by teaching Chinese to local school students as well as adult learners. In the academic year 2011-12, CI-UHM sent, upon request, volunteer teachers to teach at four elementary schools in the Kaiser Complex on Oahu and one volunteer teacher to teach at Pa’auilo Elementary and Intermediate School on the Big Island. These teachers were well-liked by the students.

Furthermore, CI-UHM has enthusiastically promoted cultural exchanges, benefiting tens of thousands of people in Hawaii. In 2012 alone, CI-UHM has organized four performances in Hawaii featuring Chinese culture. CI-UHM has also taken an active part in promoting US culture to the Chinese people.

Last but not least, CI-UHM has contributed to the US economy. The CI-UHM has received project funding from CI Headquarters, each year amounting to around $150,000, the overwhelming majority of which is spent in the US.

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read … Confucius Institutes benefit US economy, culture