Confucius Institute

The Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS) was the name of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization that facilitated the activities of the Confucius Institute in the United States. It was given tax exemption by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in December 2014. The U.S. State Department reported that Confucius Institute chapters were being opened on university campuses worldwide as early as 2004. As of 2026, the last year for which the Center published a publicly available tax return was 2021. ^{6 7 5}

Confucius chapters have been engulfed in controversy due to allegations due to allegations that the institutes suppress academic freedom at U.S. universities, actively cancel or censor events and teaching materials that are counter to the Chinese government’s interests, are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and disseminate Chinese propaganda across the United States. ^{1 8}

In October 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report that found the number of Confucius Institute chapters on American campuses had declined since 2019, “from about 100 to fewer than five.”  It surveyed nearly 100 schools that had ties to the Confucius Institute and ascertained that the most commonly cited cause behind the closures was “the potential loss of federal funding” and “external pressures,” such as the 2019 and 2021 National Defense Authorization Acts cutting Defense Department funding of Chinese language study, which had been allocated to the Confucius Institute by the colleges and universities. The schools also cited pressure from the U.S. government, U.S. Congress, and state politicians, as well as “concern for reputational cost.” Only five percent of the surveyed schools said they had a “great extent” of concern for the Institute’s proximity to Chinese government policies, while 22 percent said they only had “some concern.” ⁹

The Confucius Institute is not to be confused with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), an international network of academic membership groups founded in the late 1970s and governed by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ^{5 10 11}

Background

The Confucius Institute is a cultural promotion program run by the Chinese International Education Foundation (CIEF), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Before 2020, it was run by Hanban, otherwise known as the Chinese Language Council International, a unit of the PRC’s Ministry of Education. While the Confucius Institute describes itself as an information resource that pursues educational efforts, the group has been widely characterized by governments and research groups as a front group for Chinese state propaganda initiatives and espionage efforts. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

The Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS) was the name of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization that facilitated the activities of the Confucius Institute in the United States. It was given tax exemption by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in December 2014. The U.S. State Department reported that Confucius Institute chapters were being opened on university campuses worldwide as early as 2004. ^{7 5}

CIUS was established to act as the Washington, D.C.-based think-tank arm of the international network of Confucius-linked groups. The center’s sole member and funder is the Chinese Office of Chinese Language Council International. The organization, known colloquially as Hanban, is overseen by a branch of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Education. It also held orientation and training sessions for Chinese individuals planning to work and study in the United States, as well as groups looking to visit China. ^{12 13  14}

Confucius Institute chapters are nominally collaborative in nature, meaning they were said to be equal efforts between the Chinese Confucius Institute headquarters and the participating university. However, international critics have argued that this relationship has threatened the academic independence of universities, unlike standalone language-learning centers sponsored by democratic countries such as Germany’s Goethe-Institut and France’s Alliance Françaises. ¹⁵

While the Confucius Institute claims to support 100 university-based chapters across the country, the right-of-center National Association of Scholars counted 86 active institutes as of February 2020, with three scheduled to close over the summer of 2020. This report was updated in June 2023 to reflect NAS’s new count of only 10 active Confucius Institute chapters in the U.S., with 111 having closed or being in the process of closing. It noted that 28 of the closed chapters had been replaced with a similar program, and that at least 58 had maintained close ties with the Confucius Institute. ^{16 17}

The most prominent area of focus for the center is “public outreach and communication,” which it states is to promote cooperation and cultural exchange between China and the US. The Center has partnered with the World Affairs Councils to launch the US-China Global Education Television Series involving interviews with prominent American officials and presidents of Universities that host CSSA chapters. The Center also hosts an annual gala at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. ¹⁸

Leadership

As of 2020, the executive director of the Confucius Institute U.S. Center was Gao Qing. Gao coordinated the Center’s relationships “with other educational and cultural organizations in Washington, DC” and represented the many U.S.-based Confucius chapters in the United States. Gao previously served as the director of the Confucius Institute chapter at George Mason University from 2010 to 2017. While at George Mason, Gao’s chapter received the “Confucius Institute of the Year” award in 2013, and Gao received the “Individual Excellence” award from the “Confucius Institute Headquarters” in 2012. Beginning in 2012, Gao worked as a lecturer at Chinese Director Training programs and chaired panels at international Confucius Institute conferences on “assessment and evaluation, teaching technologies, and program development.” He also facilitated partnerships between George Mason and Chinese institutions on philanthropic and arts management, consulted on “business development initiatives for investment and trade between East Asia and Virginia,” and produced research on “Sino-US cultural and political relations.” As of 2020, Gao was said to have been managing the China Materials Service Center for four years. ¹⁹

Prior to joining the faculty of George Mason’s Arts Management program, Gao worked for the US-China Policy Foundation, another pro-PRC public policy institute in Washington, D.C. that frequently partnered with Confucius chapters. ^{19 20}

Controversies

The Confucius Institute has garnered significant criticism since its first chapter was founded in Seoul, South Korea in 2004. The first chapter in the United States came to the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004. Academics at many universities looking to establish Confucius Institute chapters in the United States immediately began to express apprehension at the idea of a Chinese government-funded center at their universities. ^{21  22}

In the years following its initial founding, the Confucius Institute continued to grow its global presence, surpassing 500 locations at universities internationally as of 2020 and with nearly 100 installed at colleges and universities across the United States, including some of the nation’s most notable and largest research universities. ^{23 24}

Hanban also funded hundreds of “Confucius Classrooms” in K-12 school districts across the US, usually as an agreement for funding Mandarin-language instruction in the school district. In some cases, school districts have announced plans to make Mandarin-language education required in their schools, prompting not only criticism about the CSSA, but also questions on practicality. The College Board, the large nonprofit best known for administering the SAT college entrance examinations, announced plans in 2014 to partner with then-Confucius Institute chapters to teach Chinese language and culture in 20 school districts in the United States. In August 2020, the U.S. State Department reported that there were approximately 500 “Confucius Classrooms” on K-12 school grounds in the United States, most of which were affiliated with a university-based Confucius chapter. ^{25 26}

Alignment with the Communist Party

Critics have accused Confucius Institute chapters of being mouthpieces for the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a charge that Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s former First Secretary and head of the propaganda department, all but confirmed in a 2010 article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily in which he stated that the PRC will “Coordinate the efforts of overseas and domestic propaganda, [and] further create a favorable international environment for us [. . .] With regard to key issues that influence our sovereignty and safety, we should actively carry out international propaganda battles against issuers such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, human rights and Falun Gong. [. . .] We should do well in establishing and operating overseas cultural centers and Confucius Institutes.” Similarly, in 2009, China’s Politburo Standing Committee ideology czar Li Changchun said the Confucius Institute chapters “are an important part of China’s overseas propaganda setup.” ^{14 26 27 28}

In 2017, a report from the National Association of Scholars claimed that Confucius Institutes were required to adhere to Chinese law including its “speech codes,” and that both Confucius Institute faculty as well as American professors have reported feeling pressure to self-censor. The Association also noted that the funding apparatuses between the Chinese State and the local chapters are intentionally hidden, and that universities with ties to the Confucius Institute had found it more difficult to criticize Chinese policies due to financial threats. ²⁷

In 2019, a study from University College Dublin (UCD) found that media outlets in localities in which the Confucius Institute had a presence were statistically more likely to soften their tone and promote a positive image of China and the PRC. ^{29 26}

In 2021, the Human Rights Foundation released a report that claimed the Confucius Institute had “cultivated a climate of intimidation and surveillance within American classrooms.” It explained: ⁸

Both information censorship and self-censorship are especially prevalent, as educators, researchers, administrators, and students alike are steered away from learning and critically thinking about topics that may be deemed sensitive to the Chinese government such as democracy, ‘the three T’s’, Hong Kong, the Uyghur genocide, and the CCP’s other prevailing human rights infringements.

The report added that several faculty members it interviewed expressed their displeasure at the way the Confucius Institute had curtailed events and activities critical of China, not only at the chapter but elsewhere on campus. This “tight control of information” extended to textbooks, seminars, workshops, and guest speaker lists, all of which had been edited, censored, or cancelled to appease the Chinese government. ⁸

Federal Inquiries and Closures

Increased visibility of CSSA in the United States has led to the closure of over ten chapters since 2019, with more Institutes looking to wind down operations. Reports of the importation of Chinese propaganda and censorship have become commonplace at Institutes across the country, with instructors often told by Hanban to avoid any mention of Taiwan, Tibet, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and banned Chinese spiritual teachings. A 2014 report from the American Association of University Professors urged colleges “to close their Confucius Institutes or renegotiate the agreement to ensure academic freedom and control.” ³⁰

In 2018, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the United States Senate that the FBI was concerned about the existence of CSSA chapters, then called Confucius Institutes, in the U.S. ³⁰

In February 2019, the U.S. Senate issued a report condemning the then-titled Confucius Institutes in the U.S. calling for either stringent controls mor closure of the institutes. The 93-page report argued that the Institutes’ ostensible purpose of promoting Chinese language and culture in the United States is misleading and is a propaganda tool of the People’s Republic of China government. The report further slammed the institutes’ lack of transparency and accused schools of hiding Chinese government funding, stating that “Nearly seventy percent of U.S. schools with a Confucius Institute that received more than $250,000 in one year failed to properly report that information to the Department of Education.” ³¹

In 2019, the National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, a clause of which prohibited American universities that host Confucius Institute chapters from receiving federal funding from the U.S. Defense Department for the study of the Chinese language, funds which had commonly been directed to Confucius Institute personnel. A clause of this nature was also included in the 2021 Natural Defense Authorization Act. ^{5 9}

Starting in 2019, the FBI began urging U.S. colleges and universities to actively reconsider their relationships to the Confucius Institute, arguing that it posed threats to academic freedom and American national security interests. ⁵

In 2019, Confucius Institute chapters closed at more than a dozen American colleges and universities, including the University of Hawaii, Indiana University, the University of Rhode Island, San Francisco State University, San Diego State University, Arizona State University, Western Kentucky University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Minnesota. ^{32 33 34 35}

In 2020, the University of Maryland announced its Confucius chapter, the oldest one in the United States, was closing. ³⁶

In 2020, the U.S. State Department released a memo regarding the presence of the CCP on American campuses, articulating its conviction that the CCP “entices or compels some individuals to engage in coercive, deceptive, or illegal activity” through groups like the Confucius Institute and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), and that they “threaten academic freedom, misuse access to world-class institutions, and seize research to enhance the PRC military.” ⁵

In August 2020, the State Department officially designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center a “foreign mission” of the PRC, categorizing it as a global propaganda outfit that administers a “malign influence campaign” for the Chinese state. It elaborated that the Center’s “opacity” and its “state-directed nature,” as well as the fact that the PRC “partially funds” the program, were the reasons behind its designation. The action did not close the Center but required it to provide documentation to the State Department disclosing the full nature of its relationship to the Chinese government, including funding, personnel, recruiting, and operations. ^{26 5}

In March 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the CONFUCIUS Act, or the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States Act. The Act introduces requirements for postsecondary educational institutions in America that receive federal funding and have contracts with the Confucius Institute to guarantee academic freedoms, “prohibit[s] the application of foreign law” on campus, and coordinates the transfer of “managerial authority” of the Institute chapters to the leaderships of the American educational institutions. It did not pass the U.S. House. ³⁷

By February 2022, the Confucius Institute chapters at all State University of New York (SUNY) campuses had been closed due to the jeopardization of federal research funding. ³⁸

By June 2023, the National Association of Scholars reported that in its count, there were only 10 active Confucius chapters left in the U.S., with 111 that had closed or were in the process of closing. It noted that 28 of the closed chapters had been replaced with a similar program, and that at least 58 had maintained close ties with the Confucius Institute, such as the CSSA. ¹⁶

In October 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report about the statuses of the American-based chapters of the Confucius Institute. It found that the number of Confucius Institute chapters on American campuses had declined since 2019, “from about 100 to fewer than five.” It surveyed nearly 100 schools that had ties to the Confucius Institute and ascertained that the most commonly cited cause behind the closures was “the potential loss of federal funding” and “external pressures,” such as the 2019 and 2021 National Defense Authorization Acts cutting Defense Department funding of Chinese language study, which had been allocated to the Confucius Institute by the colleges and universities. The schools also cited pressure from the federal government, the U.S. Congress, and state politicians, as well as “concern for reputational cost.” Only five percent of the surveyed schools said they had a “great extent” of concern for the Institute’s proximity to Chinese government policies, while 22 percent said they had “some concern.” ⁹

According to an op-ed published by The Hill, as of May 2026 a “successor group,” Center for Bridging Cultures, was allegedly established in Virginia to “bring teachers from China,” organize “exchange trips to China,” and works “as Alfred University’s Confucius Institute’s Confucius Classroom partner with the same Chinese government and university partnerships.” ³⁹ According to the Beijing Language and Culture University, the Center for Bridging Cultures was listed as one of its “global institutes” while the website claims the Center ” plays a crucial role in continuing and expanding the Chinese language programs for K-12 schools and communities that were previously offered by Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms.” ³⁹

Relationship to CSSA

The Confucius Institute is not to be confused with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), an international network of academic membership groups founded in the late 1970s and governed by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ^{5 10 11}

However, some analysts have construed a connection between the two groups. Analyst Jennifer Richmond of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has speculated that the CSSA picked up where the Confucius Institute left off as the premier form of Chinese government influence on American campuses after the latter was largely dismantled by a series of actions from the American government. ^{40 41 9}

This characterization was echoed by a group of Republican senators in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023, who wrote, “With the closure of many Confucius Institutes, the CCP is relying on other actors, including CSSAs, to influence U.S. academic institutions.” It called for a greater response from the U.S. federal government. ¹⁰

Financials

In fiscal year 2021, the Confucius Institute U.S. Center was still in operation, reporting $313,870 in revenues, $526,401 in expenses, and $35,656 in net assets on its tax return. As of 2026, this was the last year for which the Center published a publicly available tax return. ⁶

Funding

According to the Confucius Institute U.S. Center’s tax returns for 2019 and 2020, the organization had a single “member,” the Office of the Chinese Language Council International, otherwise known as Hanban, a unit of the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Education. This “sole member” reserved the right to appoint members of the board and all voting rights for the organization. On the 2019 return, it was stated that the directors Guocheng Zhao, Wei Jing, and Xu Fang were directly employed and compensated by the Office of Chinese Language Council International of the PRC. ^{42 43 4 3}