Six Australian universities have quietly closed Chinese government-linked Confucius Institutes ( CI) on their campuses.
The American government has ramped up investigation on the learning facilities in recent years over fears that Beijing is using them to spread misinformation and detective on Chinese foreign students.
China says its Confucius Institutes, which offer Chinese language and cultural classes overseas, are a “bridge reinforcing friendship” with the world.
There have been growing international concerns about the Chinese government’s approach abroad through such training centres, with universities in America and Europe even choosing to shut some of their branches.
These shutdown mean almost half of all the Confucius universities at Australia’s institutes have been shuttered. Seven others remain open, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ( ABC ).
Confucius centres have now been removed from the campuses of the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland ( UQ), the University of Western Australia ( UWA ) and the University of New South Wales ( UNSW), and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology ( RMIT ).
Some universities cited problems caused by the Covid crisis as the reason for never renewing their CI deals.
A spokeswoman for UNSW said the school was developing its own program in Chinese research and is committed to “encouraging available speech in the China-Australia diplomatic relationship”.
In recent years, Australia’s federal government had indicated it would not allow more of the centres- which are linked to the Chinese Communist Party- to open in the country.
It also required universities to provide more transparency about the institutes ‘ teachings and in some cases registering them on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme.
A UQ spokesperson said its Confucius Institute closed when the contract expired in December 2024, and it had” not been given any direction by the government”.
The University of Melbourne closed their CI in August 2024 after it was established through a partnership with Nanjing University in 2007.
The institution already offers a variety of Chinese language and Asia programmes and had” no additional need to renew” the agreement, a spokesperson said.
A University of Adelaide spokesperson did not confirm their CI had been shuttered, but said it continues to foster” connections with other countries, including China” through partnerships and education collaboration.
Human Rights Watch said in a 2019 report that Confucius Institutes were “extensions of the Chinese government” that censored discussions of politically sensitive issues to Beijing.
In Australia, the ABC reported in 2019 that applicants for volunteer teaching positions at the institutes were required to demonstrate political loyalty to the Chinese government.
Dr Jeffrey Gill from Flinders University, who studies Confucius Institutes, said he “wasn’t surprised” by the latest closures and that concerns around foreign interference were “likely to be one factor”, he told the ABC.
However, Dr Gill said he was not convinced that CIs were promoting” Chinese government propaganda” and had “very little influence on perceptions of China in Australia and the Western world more broadly”.