End Government Funding for 30 Confucius Institutes and Close Them Down

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

We urge the government to stop funding the 30 China-backed Confucius Institutes in the UK and fulfil Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s promise to close all these centres as they engage in activities far beyond the remit of ‘language and culture’ and are interfering with our higher education sector.

The Confucius Institutes are extensions of China’s censorship and pose systematic threats to our academic freedom. It pressures host universities to censor topics considered controversial by China and hire staff discriminatorily based on their ethnicity, political loyalty and ability to enforce CCP discipline in the UK. We hold the PM accountable for his promise, so as to protect the independence and integrity of British educational institutions from transnational influence and oppression.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Universities are autonomous institutions and can choose who they cooperate with, including whether to partner with Chinese Higher Education Institutions or Confucius Institutes. These partnerships are therefore a matter for individual universities, not the Government or House of Commons.

We could accept a petition calling on the Government to regulate international partnerships of higher education institutions, with a view to ensuring these do enable undue foreign influence.

The Government has said that it does not currently directly or indirectly fund Confucius Institutes:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-05-24/HL8096

Timeline

5 Jun 2023	Petition opened for signatures
12 Jun 2023	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 12 Jun 2023

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