Last month, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne used the Foreign Relations Act to terminate Victoria’s “Belt and Road” agreement with the Chinese Communist Party. Reports suggest that Australia may be taking another step forward with its latest “anti-China” move, which could see 13 Confucius Institutes in Australia “killed”.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday (10) that the Foreign Relations Act, passed by Australia’s federal parliament last December, gives the federal government the right to veto agreements between state and territory governments, local councils, public universities and foreign governments. The report said that all 13 Australian universities will have to register their Confucius Institute agreements with China for review by the June 10 deadline.
There are 13 Confucius Institutes in Australia, hosted by local universities in partnership with Chinese universities, which have come under scrutiny from the Australian federal government in recent years, fearing they are part of Beijing’s larger outreach efforts.
What is known so far, at least the Confucius Institute of Chinese Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, will be closed this year. The university says the Confucius Institute on campus will cease operations due to budgetary pressures caused by the new crown epidemic. The institute was officially launched in June 2010, with then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attending an inauguration ceremony in Victoria.
Under the Foreign Relations Act, the foreign minister can cancel any agreement reached by a local body if it “adversely affects Australia’s foreign relations” or is “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy.
A spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Foreign Minister Payne would decide whether to cancel the Confucius Institute agreement on a “case-by-case basis.
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