Inside Higher Ed
by Elizabeth Redden
May 1, 2019
Three more universities are closing their Confucius Institutes, bringing the total number of universities that have announced closures of the Chinese government-funded centers for language education over the past 15 months to at least 15.
San Francisco State University, the University of Oregon and Western Kentucky University all announced within the last two weeks that they would close their Confucius Institutes after the Department of Defense declined their requests for waivers that would allow them to continue to operate both a Confucius Institute and a Defense Department-funded Chinese Language Flagship program. The National Defense Authorization Act signed into law last August prohibits universities that host Confucius Institutes from receiving Defense Department funding for Chinese language study. The Pentagon declined all requests it received for waivers to that prohibition, according to Newsweek.