2

Characteristics and Features of Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes

This chapter presents an overview of the characteristics and features of foreign-funded language and culture institutes. The committee acknowledges that the structure, management, and programming of foreign-funded language and culture institutes varies widely across institutions and that highly prescriptive definitions provide opportunities for malicious actors to glean insights into and to find new ways around rules put in place to manage and mitigate risk associated with foreign-funded engagements on campus. As a result, the committee could not develop an all-encompassing description of a foreign-funded language and cultural institution’s structure and how it functions on U.S. college and university campuses. Rather, the committee’s goal for this chapter is to provide a sense of how foreign-funded language and culture institutes operate at institutions of higher education in the United States.

DEFINITION

As stated in the first report (NASEM, 2023), Section 1062 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which called for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct this consensus study, defines the term “Confucius Institute” (CI) as a “cultural institute directly or indirectly funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”¹ Later legislation expanded the definition of CI to a “cultural institute established as a partnership between a United States institution of

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¹ William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law No. 116-283, 116th Congress, 2nd Session (January 1, 2021), Section 1062 (U.S. Congress, 2021).

higher education and a Chinese institution of higher education to promote and teach Chinese language and culture that is funded, directly or indirectly, by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”²

For this second report, as for the first report (NASEM, 2023), the CI definition encompasses CIs established on U.S. campuses as early as 2004 with funding from the Office of Chinese Language Council International, part of China’s Ministry of Education. This funding organization was formerly known as Hanban, or CI Headquarters, and has since been renamed the Ministry of Education Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) (CRS, 2022; Peterson et al., 2022). CLEC’s Chinese International Education Foundation currently oversees and funds existing CIs (Peterson et al., 2022).³ The committee does not intend for this definition to capture Chinese language and culture partnerships funded through other nongovernmental funding channels, scientific and technological research partnerships and collaborations, study abroad programs, off-campus programs and institutes, or the Chinese Students and Scholars Association organization.

The committee was tasked with broadening its exploration in this second report to encompass additional foreign-funded language and culture institutes. The committee is particularly interested in discerning which foreign-funded language and culture institutes present minimal risk versus those that are “Confucius Institute-like” entities and require additional vetting. In its report After Confucius Institutes: China’s Enduring Influence on American Higher Education, the National Association of Scholars explores precursor and successor organizations to CIs (Peterson et al., 2022). After Confucius Institutes notes similarities between CIs and organizations that partner with China’s CLEC and the Chinese International Education Foundation (CIEF), as well as organizations that bring in Chinese nationals through the Chinese Guest Teacher Program or from a Chinese university (Peterson et al., 2022; MIT, 2022).

For the purposes of this report, the committee considers foreign-funded language and culture institutes of concern to be organizations on U.S. campuses that are sponsored, funded, or influenced by a foreign government that seeks to exert control over the institute’s values, mission, and operational decisions. In some cases, the values of the foreign government in question may not align with core U.S. higher education values such as academic freedom and freedom of expression (Scholars at Risk, 2020). However, while the country serving as the source of funding is noteworthy, the committee is most concerned with the attributes and behaviors associated with the engagement.

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² H.R. 4346 – Supreme Court Security Funding Act of 2022, Public Law No. 117-167, 117th Congress (August 9, 2022) (U.S. Congress, 2022).

³ This report refers to Hanban throughout, given that it was the funding organization’s name when the Confucius Institutes that the committee reviewed were established.

ATTRIBUTES

A foreign government can exert influence on a language and culture institute on campus or through a sponsored program, partnership, or collaboration in multiple ways. The committee notes it is important to screen all countries for behaviors of concern, as countries engaging in such activities may not be limited solely to those who do not share the U.S.’s values. Behaviors of concern include the following:

1. Providing significant funding.
   1. Funding may come directly or indirectly from foreign government agencies and nongovernmental organizations affiliated with governments, which distinguishes a foreign-funded language and culture institute from other types of international relationships, such as research centers established with funding from a U.S. and a foreign university. CIs are an example of this, with funding coming first from Hanban and later through CLEC and CIEF.
2. Approving the selection of leadership and/or other personnel.
   1. The committee found in the first report (NASEM, 2023) that the government of the People’s Republic of China sometimes approved the selection of the CI associate/assistant director and other personnel such as faculty, staff, and instructors. While there is no evidence that CI teachers are screened for their political beliefs, CI teachers tend to exhibit political compliance while working abroad. This can lead to self-censorship of discussions around politically sensitive topics (Fan et al., 2022).
3. Maintaining control over operational decisions and not being subject to the host university’s academic governance and oversight.⁴ This can include decisions regarding the selection of curriculum, texts, and participation in events.
4. Harassing faculty, staff, and students from the foreign country who voice opinions that reflect badly on their home country.
5. Engaging in activities that are contributing to the suppression of human rights of their own citizens abroad.

OTHER FORMAL FOREIGN-FUNDED LANGUAGE AND CULTURE INSTITUTES

In addition to CIs, other foreign-funded language and culture institutes exist and have a presence in the United States. While the Chinese government may

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⁴ From its exploration in support of the first report (NASEM, 2023), the committee found that classifying such programs, partnerships, and collaborations as formal Centers or Institutes serves as a means of providing checks and balances that protect the values of openness and academic freedom.

have modeled CIs after other foreign-funded institutes, CIs are differentiated by their physical location on a college campus and fiduciary/faculty partnership. Study staff searched for and analyzed active, public websites of other foreign-funded language and culture institutes, with an emphasis on the stated mission of the program or institute, possible public affiliations or collaborations with U.S. institutions of higher education, and site-based collaborations or locations directly on campuses. Study staff did not analyze publicly shared contracts or agreements obtained through program or country websites. The foreign-funded language and culture institutes researched in support of this report are listed in Box 2-1, with additional information available in Appendix E.

Of the foreign-funded language and culture institutes listed in Box 2-1, some were operational before the advent of CIs, some are defunct or no longer exist, and some are currently active. Study staff found one Alliance Française chapter located on campus at a U.S. institution of higher education⁵ and one Goethe Institut affiliated with a U.S. institution of higher education.^6,7

The committee notes that some language and culture institutes, such as those offered by the Korea Foundation and the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) Program, do have partnerships with U.S. institutions of higher education. Rather than supporting permanent institutes on host campuses, these institutes provide funding for faculty positions, library materials, programmatic and cultural activities, and inbound study abroad scholarships to their respective countries. During the period between its establishment in 1991 and November 2021, the Korea Foundation created and funded 149 professorships in Korean studies at 97 universities in 17 countries in addition to providing scholarships to more than 4,000 students and researchers overseas pursuing master’s, doctoral, or postdoctoral studies related to Korea (KBS World, 2021). Furthermore, seven U.S. institutions of higher education participate in the Korea

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⁵ The Department of World Languages and Literatures at Western Michigan University partners with the Alliance Française de Kalamazoo; see https://wmich.edu/languages/alliance. The committee was unable to determine the current status of the Alliance Française chapters located on campus at Columbia University (https://maisonfrancaise.columbia.edu/) and Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. In addition, while a loose affiliation between Old Dominion University and the Alliance Française appears to have ended, a loose affiliation between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Alliance Française seems to continue (http://www.afknoxville.org/).

⁶ The German Culture Center (GCC; https://www.umsl.edu/services/gcc/About%20Us/index.html) is located on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and is a unit of UMSL Global. The GCC is also a “cultural institute” of and cooperating partner with Goethe Institut. Students from UMSL utilize the GCC’s resources, borrowing materials and attending classes at the center, which works closely with the Goethe Institut in Chicago.

⁷ While the Dante Alighieri Society of Washington offers language classes on campus at Seattle University, the branch is not affiliated with Seattle University and books the classrooms on campus as an external organization. See https://danteseattle.org/italian-language-program/italian-language-classes-faq/.

Foundation University Library Program,⁸ through which they receive grants from the Korea Foundation to purchase materials to support their respective Korean Studies programs and host visiting librarians from South Korea (Ryoo, 2020).

Taiwan Huayu BEST Program

The Taiwan Huayu BEST Program is an example of a foreign-funded language and culture institute that aligns with U.S. higher education values. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Camille Dawson stated in February 2023 that Taiwan safeguards academic freedom and has “a free and vibrant education environment, free of coercion or censorship, as we enjoy in the United States,” making it an attractive partner for

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⁸ Participating U.S. institutions of higher education include Harvard University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; the University of Michigan; the University of Southern California; the University of Washington; and the University of California, Irvine. See https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=580311.

Chinese language education (AIT, 2023). Taiwan established the Taiwan Huayu⁹ BEST Program through the National Taiwan University to cultivate international Chinese language learning collaborations and to promote and expand upon Taiwan’s Chinese language instruction resources and cultural heritage.¹⁰

While both the Huayu BEST Program and CIs cultivate Chinese-language learning collaborations with universities across the globe, the Huayu BEST Program’s structure is distinct from CIs in two ways: (1) it utilizes online education technology for remote learning, and (2) it promotes the nation’s goal of becoming a bilingual society by 2030 through an “international student buddy” system that fosters bidirectional language learning. The Huayu BEST Program has established partnerships with more than 40 U.S. universities, including Indiana University, Temple University, the University of Texas at Austin, Harvard University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Michigan State University, as well as with universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan), 2022; NTU, 2023).

With the closure of CIs in the United States and Europe, Taiwan’s language and culture programs are emerging as an alternative to CIs for Mandarin instruction on university campuses. As one example, the Taiwan Studies Program at the University of Washington cites support from the Taiwan Ministry of Education, the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange,¹¹ an anonymous donor, and local community members.¹² The Huayu BEST Program is a valuable example of how a foreign-funded language and cultural institute can be incorporated into an American university and evaluated to ensure its quality and respect of the norms of U.S. institutions of higher education.

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⁹ “Huayu” is a colloquial term for Mandarin Chinese.

¹⁰ Additional information is available at https://sites.google.com/view/ntuhuayubest/about-best.

¹¹ See http://www.cckf.org/en/grants.

¹² See https://jsis.washington.edu/taiwan/about/.