The State University of New York has shut down a Chinese government-backed program at its schools.
The Times Union reports the University at Albany, Nassau Community College, Stony Brook University, SUNY College of Optometry, Binghamton University and the University at Buffalo all closed their Confucius Institutes on campus this year. The educational and cultural programming centers, partially funded by China, aimed to share language, culture, ethics, and philosophy among students, but have been increasingly scrutinized amid U.S. tensions with China’s Communist government.
“In recent years, however, it became increasingly clear that continuing this relationship could jeopardize UAlbany’s access to critical federal research funding,” University at Albany spokesman Jordan Carleo-Evangelist told the Times Union. “For a major research institution like UAlbany, that risk is untenable – no matter how valued the programming.”
It’s unclear how much in funding will be affected statewide, but Carleo-Evangelist said UAlbany risked access to federal research funding — $100 million in 2019 and $70 million in 2020 — if it continued its relationship with the Confucius Institute.
According to the National Association of Scholars, there are still more than a dozen Confucius Institutes across the U.S., including one remaining in New York state at Alfred University, a private school in Allegany County. The Confucius Institute at Alfred University, supported by the Confucius Institute Headquarters / Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) and China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), says it’s dedicated “to building a multicultural society and a peaceful world.”
There were previously as many as 110 institutes across the U.S. in 2017 and more than 500 globally in 2018.
According to the Times Union, Confucius Institutes emerged as a popular addition for colleges facing budget struggles over the past two decades, but some politicians have criticized them as anti-American promoters of Chinese propaganda. The Trump administration designated the program as a “foreign mission” in 2020, to which China responded by accusing the U.S. of politicizing education and “interfering with normal people-to-people and cultural exchanges.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story said there was a Confucius Institute at the University of Southern California. USC previously reported on the nationwide growth on the program, but never had a Confucius Institute on campus.