Rishi Sunak, one of the front-runners in the race to become Britain’s new prime minister, on Monday promised to impose new curbs to deal with an increasingly assertive China. Sunak said if he is elected to the high office, he would ban all 30 Confucious Institutes that are operational in the United Kingdom.
In a string of tweets, Sunak elaborated how he plans to deal with China should he is elected as the Britain’s Prime Minister. He called China and the Chinese Communist Party the “largest threat to Britain and the world’s security and prosperity this century” and listed down measures he plans to take on being elected to the high office.
2/ I would close all 30 of China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK – the highest number in the world.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 25, 2022
Almost all UK government spending on Mandarin language teaching at school is channelled through university-based Confucius Institutes, thereby promoting Chinese soft power. pic.twitter.com/RAWf0WsKRS
Sounding alarm over the growing influence of China’s Confucius Institutes that serve to strengthen Beijing’s soft power, Sunak said he would close down all 30 institutes in the United Kingdom—the highest number in the world.
“Almost all UK government spending on Mandarin language teaching at school is channelled through university-based Confucius Institutes, thereby promoting Chinese soft power,” he tweeted.
He also promised to forge a new international alliance of free nations to deal with the threat posed by China’s cyber warfare and share best practices in technology security.
Pledging to expand MI5’s reach to provide greater support to British businesses and universities to counter Chinese industrial espionage, Sunak said he will work across government and with security services to build a toolkit to help companies protect their intellectual property.
He also vowed to protect key British assets, which included examination of the need to prevent Chinese acquisitions of crucial companies such as strategically sensitive tech organisations.
The pledges to tackle the Chinese threat come in the wake of an intense battle over the post of Britain’s Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are working hard to win over the support of conservative lawmakers to become the next leader to occupy 10 Downing Street.
How Confucius Institutes have served to further nefarious designs of CCP
It is important to note that the Confucius Institutes (CIs) had come under scrutiny of western governments for allegedly infiltrating several institutions to further Chinese propaganda. There are allegations of spying against people associated with Confucius Institutes.
Several CIs have been shut down in the US and Europe over such concerns. Last year, the US-based Tufts University in the United States decided to shut down the contentious Confucius Institute from its campus.
In September last year, the State Department had written to the governing boards of US universities cautioning them about the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party. US State Secretary Mike Pompeo had said that he was hopeful that dozens of Chinese-government funded Confucius Institute cultural centres on US campuses would be shut down by year-end. The institutes are accused of working to recruit “spies and collaborators”.
The Confucius Institutes now exist in 30 British universities and 150 schools. While they claim to promote Chinese culture and language, the Mail reported that they curb free speech and peddle CCP propaganda. The Confucius International Education Group bought the Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School, a school where Princess Diana studied, in 2015.
