CHINA-GERMANY: GERMAN UNIVERSITIES BEGIN CLOSING CONFUCIUS INSTITUTES
The German daily newspaper Die Welt reported (July 31) that the University of Hamburg and the University in Bonn in Germany are reportedly cutting ties with the Confucius Institute (CI) by the end of this year. Another university in Germany, Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf ended its ties with Hanban or Confucius Institute Headquarters in 2016 over concerns over CCP’s political influence. However, Germany’s Goethe University Frankfurt has dismissed allegations that the CI's propagate CCP’s agenda. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) has proposed a bill to control these Beijing sponsored language centres to safeguard academic freedom in Germany. Separately, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) issued a directive circulating online earlier this month that the institute will be rebranded as the “MOE Centre for Language Exchange and Cooperation” in a move to curb growing global backlash.
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