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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

UCLA praised abroad for not terminating its Confucius Institute

From the South China Morning Post:

FEARS OF CHINESE INFILTRATION ON U.S. CAMPUSES REVEAL THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND  4-9-2018

Tom Plate says the targeting of Confucius Institutes in the U.S. as potentially subversive threats shows how little many Americans know about China, and even about their own universities – where differences of opinion are gradually disappearing. Columnist Tom Plate taught at UCLA for 15 years before joining Loyola Marymount University as its distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific studies: [excerpt]

...One major institution that, admirably, has kept its poise is the University of California at Los Angeles, which has dismissed the Confucius Institute controversy with the sort of clear-headed self-confidence one expects from a great research university. Its formal review, headed by UCLA political scientist Mark Peterson, assessed its campus chapter as a valuable instrument of cultural diversity, not some nasty ideological submarine. UCLA students pointed out the folly of broad-brushing Chinese instructors and students as propaganda robots... 

Full article at http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2140869/fears-chinese-infiltration-us-campuses-reveal-closing

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