On June 20, 2010, Xi Jinping inaugurated a Confucius Institute in Australia.
Following the closure of the Confucius Institute in Sweden, Norway will also close the only Confucius Institute in the country. Confucius Institutes have been accused of being a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to export red ideology and perform espionage missions. The United States, Canada, Australia and other countries have closed several Confucius Institutes on national security grounds.
Free Asia reported on March 19 that the Confucius Institute at the University of Bergen in Norway is closing, the second Nordic country to no longer have a Confucius Institute in its territory.
It was the first and only Confucius Institute in Norway,” said Harald Bøckman, a researcher at the University of Oslo. “China (the Communist Party) tried to establish another Confucius Institute, but it was thwarted by opposition from local authorities. The Confucius Institute in Bergen was challenged from the start, with other research institutions refusing to set up Confucius Institutes because they were run by Beijing.”
Bergen’s Confucius Institute, established in 2007, emphasizes martial arts instruction in addition to Chinese language teaching activities, and Beijing Sports University has been a partner of the University of Bergen.
However, the Chinese Communist government recently wanted the University of Bergen to partner with the Communist University of Political Science and Law, and the university’s close ties to the Communist Party and government agencies ultimately prompted the University of Bergen’s decision to close the Confucius Institute.
Sweden has already closed four Confucius Institutes back in December 2019 and the last Confucius Classroom in April 2020, becoming the first country in Europe to close all Confucius Institutes and Classrooms. Norway’s closure of Confucius Institutes is following Sweden’s lead.
Confucius Institutes have been accused of infiltrating other countries’ Education systems in the name of teaching and cultural exchange, interfering with freedom of expression on campus, and avoiding criticism of Chinese Communist policies. Confucius Institutes have also been revealed to perform inappropriate covert espionage activities such as intelligence gathering and promoting military research, and as a result several countries have shut down Confucius Institutes.
According to Burkman, Confucius Institutes are a propaganda tool that is an extension of the Communist authorities’ soft power machinations and official Communist propaganda, which runs counter to the standards of Western academic institutions.
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