The 30 Chinese institutes across the country were established to deliver culture and language courses to international students. But MPs have warned that the institutes are effectively a front for the Chinese Communist Party to suppress views critical of China and are having a “chilling effect” on academic freedom. An investigation seen by The Telegraph has revealed evidence that Chinese bodies overseeing Confucius Institutes appear to be using discriminatory employment policies to control staff working on UK campuses and are trying to replicate China’s legal regime, which restricts freedom of speech. Job applications published by Chinese universities, which have partnerships to run Confucius Institutes with their UK counterparts, including Cardiff, Southampton and Huddersfield, ask applicants to describe their “political profile/characteristics” and “nationality their”. Sam Dunning, who is leading the investigation for the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank, and the Hong Kong Freedom Committee, a pro-democracy group, said the application forms appeared to be used to determine whether the candidates are members of the Communist Party or have potentially problematic relationships. “Our research shows that political and ethnic discrimination is pervasive in the recruitment process for roles at Confucius Institutes in UK universities,” he said. The researchers found that of around 200 Chinese employees at Confucius Institutes in the UK, only two people are not Han, the majority ethnicity that dominates the Chinese Communist Party.
They must comply with Chinese law in the UK
Chinese staff are recruited in China before joining Confucius Institutes in the UK. The institutes are managed by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, which is supervised by the Chinese Ministry of Education. In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Newcastle University said staff at the Confucius Institute, which was established with Xiamen University in China, are “guest employees” at the university and that the selection process takes place in China through the Xiamen Language Education and Cooperation Center. The institute’s Chinese staff, when they arrive in the UK, must comply with Chinese law as well as UK law, the university said, meaning they cannot insult the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, without risking sanctions or to say they believe Tibet must be free. The university said it “does not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our community and we are committed to ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for all.” In response to an FOI request made by the Newcastle students’ union, the university said: “Any allegations of discrimination of any kind made by staff are investigated under either the dignity and respect policy or the disciplinary policy.” Anson Kwong, a researcher from Hong Kong now based in London, said: “By replicating China’s legal regime that restricts speech, the Confucius Institutes have in effect successfully introduced a regime of censorship onto British university campuses. “And our universities are indeed participating in the Communist Party’s systematic oppression of national minorities and political dissidents. All of this undermines our scholarship by distorting our knowledge of China so that we only have the official version of Chinese culture, society and history.”
“You can’t opt out of discrimination law”
Naomi Cunningham, employment lawyer at Outer Temple Chambers, said: “UK law applies to employment in the UK. It is not possible to opt out simply by writing “Chinese law applies” in the contract. “You cannot opt out of discrimination law. I fail to see why this kind of screening of political views would not be direct discrimination on the basis of protected beliefs. Not being a follower of the Chinese Communist Party, for example, is a protected belief – as is being a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.” Rishi Sunak, the Conservative Party leadership candidate, pledged during his campaign to ban the institutes, which he said were being used to promote “Chinese soft power”. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said: “The Confucius Institutes are there to spy on Chinese students in particular. However, they are also there to intimidate the university hierarchy to ensure that critical debates about China do not take place in British universities.’ Sir Iain, who is backing Liz Truss in the leadership campaign, said he was confident that under her leadership, the UK would see “strong action on this Chinese intrusion”. In 2013, McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, closed its institute after a lecturer filed a discrimination complaint that her religious beliefs were being suppressed. Explaining the decision to close the institute, Andrea Farquhar, McMaster’s assistant vice-president for communications and public affairs, said: “It’s really around hiring decisions – and those decisions were being made in China.” The universities of Huddersfield, Southampton and Cardiff did not respond to requests for comment. Newcastle University did not respond to a request for comment on its response to the FOI request. A Chinese embassy spokesman said: “We hope that educational exchanges between China and the UK will be perceived objectively and rationally, and that the huge public interest in learning more about Chinese language and culture will be respected and recognised. . “The harmful tendency to politicize anything to do with exchanges of people between China and the UK must stop. “Over the years, Confucius Institutes in the UK have been committed to open and transparent operation and strict adherence to local law and university regulations.”
