Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne talks to the media during a news conference on April 22, 2021.
After the scrapping of Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has warned that more foreign-related agreements that run counter to national interests could be scrapped in the future. At least two Confucius Institutes run by the Chinese Communist Party at Australian universities are currently under review.
According to Sky News, the two Confucius Institutes under review are located at the University of Queensland and the University of Adelaide. The Confucius Institutes’ close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and their role in major outreach have made them controversial in Australia.
The Australian federal government’s Foreign Relations Act, introduced late last year, gave Foreign Minister Marise Payne the legal authority to annul foreign-related agreements signed by public universities, state and regional governments, and local governments that are contrary to the national interest.
The V.I. government’s unauthorized Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese Communist Party has already been repealed, and on Thursday, April 22, Payne warned that more foreign-related agreements could be repealed in the future. “We have to acknowledge that the outlook for China, the nature of China’s foreign engagement in the region and globally, has changed in recent years.”
Professor Clive Hamilton, an expert on China, has expressed hope that the Foreign Relations Act will put an end to the Confucius Institutes, and that the administrations of Australian colleges and universities will take note that the United States is rapidly closing them.
In late 2014, Xu Lin, the director general of the Confucius Institute headquarters, publicly declared in an interview with the BBC that the Confucius Institutes exist to exporting Chinese Communist values.
Recent Comments