Scottish universities are hoping to hold urgent talks with the UK Security Minister after he threatened to close the Chinese language hubs known as Confucius Institutes amid rising tensions with Beijing.
Tome Tugendhat reinforced the pledge made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to close the controversial Confucius Institutes, which are said to be a direct extension of the Chinese Communist Party. The security forces believe they are used by China's government for harassing, intimating and spying on Chinese students in the UK.
Scotland has five Confucius Institutes across its universities out of 26 in the UK and 12 Confucius Classrooms at selected areas out of 92 in the UK
The University of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt has received more than £13million in the past 15 years to host the controversial Chinese language hubs.
Mr Tugendhat told MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday that Mr Sunak believed the centres posed a "threat to civil liberties" and was ready to close them.
UK Government Security Minister Tom Tugendhat (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
He said: "We have been aware for some time of efforts to interfere in our academic freedoms and university sector, and we have been taking steps to protect our institutions".
The Confucius Institutes are supposed to be similar to the role of the British Council around the world to provide Chinese language and cultural education, with critics claiming they are a tool of "soft power" and surveillance.
A spokesman said: "We will work closely, and urgently, with the Scottish and UK governments to offer reassurance on institutional operations, as needed, and to understand the intent and the rationale behind today's restatement of comments made in the summer."
It follows a Times interviews with Professor Peter Mathieson, the principal of Edinburgh University, who denied the institutes were a security risk, arguing they were mainly small in size, dealt only in cultural issues and had no impact on university policy.
He added that the UK Government have little control over their presence in Scotland since they came under the devolved administration at Holyrood.
"So there's a constitutional nicety about whether [the prime minister] can impose that view on a devolved government," he said.
However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has come under growing pressure to assist Mr Sunak in his efforts to roll back Chinese infiltration of Scottish universities, as education is devolved.
The SNP defence spokesman, Stewart McDonald and Scottish Greens education spokesman Ross Greer joined with critics to call for the institutes to go.
Mr McDonald told the paper: "The Chinese Communist Party is using all the instruments of its international architecture, including the Confucius Institutes, to harass, intimidate and track down people."
Mr Greer, whose party shares power with the SNP in Holyrood, said the Confucius programme "is and always has been a propaganda vehicle for the Chinese regime.
"All democratic governments must take a zero-tolerance approach against dictatorships like the one in Beijing. Its propaganda efforts have no place in a progressive Scotland."
Pam Gosal, the Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman, added that SNP ministers must stop taking Chinese cash for Scottish education. She said: "SNP ministers must urgently confirm Chinese government influence and funding in our schools and universities through Confucius Institutes will end."
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Sunak “looking to close” Confucius Institutes in UK
https://thepienews.com/news/uk-sunak-looking-close-confucius-institutes/
by Viggo Stacey
The UK’s prime minister is looking to close Confucius Institutes in the country having vowed to do so during the Conservative party leadership campaign earlier this year.
The minister made the comments during a debate in the house of commons on November 1. Photo: Parliament.tv
"My view is that it is unwise for the UK government to declare China a threat formally"
During the leadership contest with former PM Liz Truss in July, Rishi Sunak pledged to “kick the CCP out of our universities”, accusing Truss of being “too soft” on China.
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and minister for Security Tom Tugendhat said in parliament this week that the current prime minister “will be looking to close” the centres across UK campuses.
“Confucius Institutes pose a threat to civil liberties in many universities in the UK,” he said during a debate in the House of Commons. There are currently some 30 Confucius Institutes in the UK.
The US, Japan, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have already begun to phase-out the centres, and during the debate on November 1, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said that without action, the UK will “look like we are dragging our feet compared with our neighbours”.
“We have testimony from endless people, we have a Chinese government who have set up these police stations,” he stated.
“We have Confucius Institutes bullying Chinese students here”
“We have Confucius Institutes bullying Chinese students here, we have seen them beaten up on the streets in the UK, and we wonder very much whether they feel safe,” Duncan Smith continued, referring to an incident in Manchester in October where a pro-democracy protester from Hong Kong was beaten by unidentified men at the Chinese consulate.
“Will he therefore take back to the government, and to the Foreign Office, the message that it is high time they showed some strength and acted immediately to get rid of the diplomats responsible in Manchester, to investigate these police stations and kick them out, and to do the same with the Confucius Institutes?” he appealed to the minister.
Tugendhat confirmed that an assessment “will be coming forward urgently”.
However, not everyone agrees that sharp action against China would be in the UK’s interest.
Director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, Steve Tsang, recently told The Telegraph that the UK government needs a “proper China strategy”.
“My view is that it is unwise for the UK government to declare China a threat formally, as it will trigger some form of retaliation from Xi [Jinping]’s ultra-nationalist government that brands any government doing so as anti-China,” he told the paper.
