Supporters of a policy signed by President Donald Trump in the 11th hour of his term are denouncing President Joe Biden for withdrawing the order, a move they say will allow the Chinese Communist Party to spread propaganda in American schools.
The claim
On Monday, the conservative newspaper The National Pulse published an article titled “Biden silently repeals Trump’s ban on Chinese communist propaganda in schools”.
Right-wing news outlets, experts, representative Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) And others quickly criticized Biden for “rewarding China by allowing its propaganda to infiltrate our university campuses”.
Conservatives, including McCarthy, sent their comments on Twitter, echoing the article’s claim that the withdrawal of a Trump order, made before Biden’s inauguration on January 20, will allow the Chinese Communist Party to spread disinformation in American schools.
It has been a year since the Chinese Communist Party let a pandemic spread around the world.
Instead of holding them accountable for hiding the truth, Biden Admin is rewarding China by allowing its propaganda to infiltrate our university campuses. https://t.co/ASzmkDGIcX
– Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) February 9, 2021
The facts
In August 2020, the Trump administration declared the Confucius Institute (CI) U.S. Center a foreign mission from the Chinese Community Party, accusing the controversial educational partnership of being an advertising operation on U.S. colleges and K-12 campuses.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) Said that the institute, which is considered a cultural organization and teaches Mandarin and Chinese culture to American students, is designed to “spread communist propaganda and spy on Chinese students who study the world for free. “
“Beijing’s public diplomacy depends on these communist posts, so they should be forced to register as foreign missions,” said Sasse, according to the AP. “Teaching Mandarin at campus institutes is mainly a cover story for the espionage of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The BBC said the schools are a joint venture between a host school, a partner school in China and a controversial agency known as Hanban, which is under the responsibility of the Chinese education ministry. CI receives partial funding and other support from Hanban. While there is little direct evidence to support Sasse’s claims, he is not alone in his disdain for the globally established CI.
Some educators, like the American Association of University Teachers, said that topics that conflict with CI’s “mission”, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and democracy, are repressed in classrooms. On a BBC interview, CI chief executive Xu Lin suggested that program teachers should tell inquiring students that “Taiwan belongs to China”.
At least 45 K-12 schools and universities in the United States have closed their CI programs in recent years, citing the same concerns about academic freedom and pro-China propaganda.
But the Trump administration’s foreign mission assignment and the last-minute executive order on the CI never actually banned educational programs, nor issued guidelines on what the programs can and cannot teach.
The policy, officially “Establishing Requirements for Certified Schools in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms,” only required that K-12 colleges and schools certified to host foreign exchange programs disclose contracts, partnerships or financial transactions from Confucius Institutes or Confuscius Classrooms, the K-12 component of the CI.
It would also have applied to other Chinese institutes or cultural groups financed directly or indirectly by China. The consequences of failure to report such information would have resulted in the revocation of the school’s Student and Exchange Program certification.
The decision
False.
Biden revoked a Trump-era policy towards China-sponsored education programs, but only required that K-12 schools and universities reveal their ties to such institutions. There has never been a ban on “Chinese Communist propaganda” in schools.
Stefani Reynolds-Pool / Getty