Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, let me apologize in advance. My accent has not changed, but my speech has. I had a little oral surgery, so I am going to try to be as clear as I can be.
I want to talk for a few minutes today about the Communist Party of China and Confucius Institutes.
As you know, Confucius Institutes are the Communist Party of China's so-called learning centers that are located on 72 university campuses across the continental United States and, of course, Alaska and Hawaii. Each one of these symbols is one of these Confucius Institutes located at one of our universities.
Here is how a Confucius Institute works. The Communist Party of China gives our universities--these 72 universities--the money to open these Confucius Institutes, and supposedly the purpose of these Confucius Institutes is to, A, teach the Chinese language, and B, to teach culture about the country of China to American students.
At this juncture, it is important to distinguish between the people of China and the Chinese Communist Party. I had the pleasure of visiting China a number of times, and I know the Presiding Officer has. The Chinese people are wonderful people. They are smart. They are hard- working. They have a wonderful sense of humor. They are just extraordinary people. Their government, the Communist Party of China-- not so much. Not nearly so much. So when I talk today about China, I am talking about their government, the Communist Party of China.
These Confucius Institutes, which are, once again, funded by the Communist Party of China, you will not be surprised to learn come with a lot of strings attached to that Chinese Communist Party money. For example, most of the teachers who teach at these Confucius Institutes on American university campuses are trained in China. In fact, the Communist Party of China has to approve all the teachers even though they are teaching in our universities. The Communist Party of China also has to approve all of the events and the speakers at these Confucius Institutes.
In addition, in order to get the money from the Communist Party of China, our universities have to agree that the Confucius Institutes will be governed by both Chinese law and American law. I have never seen anything like that. It is unprecedented.
In order to get the money from the Communist Party of China, our universities also have to agree through these Confucius Institutes that certain topics will be off limits. For example, at these institutes, you can't talk about Taiwan; you can't talk about civil liberties in Hong Kong; you can't talk about Tiananmen Square and the murders there by the Communist Party of China; you can't talk about Tibet; you can't talk about the Dalai Lama; and you can't talk about the discrimination and indeed the imprisonment of the Uighur Muslims in northwest China. Once again, these are institutes that are on American campuses, but in order to get the money from the Communist Party of China, our universities have to agree that these topics are off limits.
The Communist Party of China, in short, requires that these institutes can only teach versions of Chinese history, culture, and current events that are approved by the Communist Party of China. That is about the furthest thing you can imagine from academic freedom.
How am I doing? Is my speech OK? I promise you, I haven't been drinking.
The first Confucius Institute was formed on an American campus in 2004, and since that time, they have evolved--and not in a good way.
I want to give you a short quotation. You are familiar with the Politburo of the Communist Party of China. Back in 2011, a member of the Politburo, which is the senior leadership in China in its Communist Party, Comrade Li Changchun, described Confucius Institutes in a speech he gave in Beijing in 2011. Comrade Li said:
The Confucius Institutes are an appealing brand for extending China's culture abroad. [They have] made an important contribution toward improving [our] soft power. ``The `Confucius brand' has a natural attractiveness''--
A natural attractiveness.
. . . using the excuse of teaching Chinese language, everything looks reasonable and logical.''
But of course it is not.
Many of our professors across America have condemned the behavior of the Confucius Institutes. The American Association of University Professors did a comprehensive study of Confucius Institutes in 2014. Here is their report. This is what our professors concluded. I will quote from their report.
Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom. Their academic activities are under the supervision of Hanban, a Chinese state agency which is chaired by a member of the Politburo and the vice-premier of the People's Republic of China. Most agreements establishing Confucius Institutes feature nondisclosure clauses and unacceptable concessions to the political aims and practices of the government of China. Specifically, North American universities permit Confucius Institutes to advance a state agenda in the recruitment and control of academic staff, in the choice of curriculum, and in the restriction of debate.
I don't want to beat this to death, but I have a number of studies. There is another one right here from the GAO.
I won't bore you with the details, but here is a 2019 report calling for either the overhaul or the closure of Confucius Institutes in America, which was issued by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Many U.S. colleges have disbanded Confucius Institutes. I want to be fair. Not that many years ago, there were over 100 of these little symbols. Now there are 72. About 30 universities have said: No, we believe in academic freedom--universities like the University of Chicago, Miami-Dade College, and Pennsylvania State University.
Senator Doug Jones, our colleague from Alabama, the distinguished junior Senator from Alabama, and I have a bill. It deals with Confucius Institutes, but it wouldn't abolish them. It would not. The name of the bill--it is called the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States Act, the CONFUCIUS Act, by Senator Doug Jones and myself.
Our bill would reform Confucius Institutes. Our bill would allow them to exist, but it would require all American universities that choose to sign a contract and receive money from and with the Communist Party of China to enter into contracts that require the Confucius Institutes to do the following: The Confucius Institute, by contract, would have to provide that it would protect academic freedom at the university; that it would prohibit the application of any foreign law on any campus of the institution; and that rather than granting full managerial control to the Chinese Party of China, it would grant full managerial authority of the Confucius Institute to the campus on which the Confucius Institute is situated. That would include full control over what is being taught, the activities carried out, the research grants that are made, and who was employed at the Confucius Institute.
If the Confucius Institutes are going to be part of our universities, they should be part of our universities. Freedom of speech, full academic freedom--anything is open for discussion, and we don't have to have it first approved by the Communist Party of China.
I think Senator Jones' and my bill would restore balance. It would restore truth. It would restore transparency. I know it would restore academic freedom to these Confucius Institutes that are operating in the United States of America.
939--that is the CONFUCIUS Act--and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with gratitude to my coauthor, Senator Doug Jones, who has done an extraordinary job on this legislation, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you.
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