Beijing defends Confucius centres amid US call for freedom probe
BEIJING: China on Friday (Dec 5) defended its overseas Confucius Institutes, one day after a US congressman called for a probe into the language and cultural centres over concerns that they violate academic freedom.
The row over the Beijing-backed centres - which number nearly 100 in the US, mostly on the campuses of publicly-funded state universities - comes after a number of US, Canadian and other schools publicly cut ties with them.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described Confucius Institutes as "a bridge linking China with the rest of the world" and maintained that all activities at the centres were "open and transparent".
"The Chinese side provides assistance in terms of teachers and textbooks at the request of the American side," Hua said at a regular briefing. "It has never interfered in academic freedom. We hope that all countries can make joint efforts to discard prejudice and build the bridge of friendship much stronger."
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/beijing-defends-confucius/1512326.html
Further down, Congressman Chris Smith, a New jersey Republican, asks:
to which I reply heck yeah, in the USA higher education is for sale, where have you been living these last 40 years?