An organization in Beijing that is closely tied to the Chinese government has offered Stanford University $4 million to host a Confucius Institute on campus. The generous endowment does come with one, overriding stipulation: the university is not allowed to discuss the Tibet dispute.
Stanford officials, citing academic freedom, refused to uphold the demand and the organization eventually relented. The university plans to utilize the money by focusing on classical Chinese poetry, a neutral topic that doesn’t touch on delicate issues regarding the Chinese government.
Jonathan Lipman, a Chinese history professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts told Bloomberg: “The general pattern is very clear. They can say ‘We’ll give you this money, you’ll have a Chinese program, and nobody will talk about Tibet.’ In this economy, turning them down has real costs.”
Programs like Confucius Institutes fill a growing demand at U.S. colleges for wealth that is generated in China and other Asian countries and is subsequently funneled into American universities.
While demands from the Chinese government for silence on issues like Tibet and the Dalai Lama conflict with the notion of academic freedom in America, they have gradually become less forceful on what cannot be discussed. As an unspoken rule, it is best for U.S. colleges hosting these institutes to stray from any contemporary political issues that may seem controversial.
Confucius Institutes are non-profit establishments that promote the Chinese language and culture in foreign countries. Currently, there are 350 Confucius Institutes worldwide. The U.S. is home to 75 of those institutions.
