China’s influence increasingly threatens the academic world in Brazil, expert warns
China’s influence increasingly threatens the academic world in Brazil, expert warns
China’s influence increasingly threatens the academic world in Brazil. In recent years, the country’s main higher education institutions, such as the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), have established partnerships with Chinese institutions at a...
China’s influence increasingly threatens the academic world in Brazil. In recent years, the country’s main higher education institutions, such as the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), have established partnerships with Chinese institutions at an ever-increasing rate. Experts warn of the risks of this growing soft power that Beijing uses to promote the Chinese model.
“China’s influence on Brazilian universities has never been greater,” journalist Gabriel de Arruda Castro, editor of Brazilian daily Gazeta do Povo, told Diálogo. “Obviously, this opens the door to the presence of representatives of an authoritarian regime, which is not the case when Brazil establishes academic partnerships with countries like Germany or France.”
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Although agreements between Brazilian and foreign universities are common, Castro points out that these countries respect the independence and academic autonomy of their teaching centers. Chinese universities, on the other hand, are subject to the strict control of the Beijing government. “From the point of view of the Chinese regime, it doesn’t make any sense to fund any project that might be critical of the Chinese model,” says Castro.
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Part of the Chinese influence in Brazilian universities is exerted through partnerships with the Confucius Institute, an entity linked to the Chinese Ministry of Education, whose official mission is to spread Chinese culture and language.
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On August 13, 2020, the U.S. State Department designated the Confucius Institute as a “foreign mission” of China, noting that it promotes “Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign” in classrooms.
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In 2023, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) called the Confucius Institute a tool of political influence. “China’s activities and forms of cooperation threaten to undermine academic freedom in the field of education and research,” the BfV said in its annual report, German news agency Deutsche Welle reported.
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“Obviously, the official view of the regime is not challenged in these cases. The promotion of Chinese culture is therefore mixed with the promotion of the Chinese regime,” says Castro. “In my research, I didn’t find any perspective critical of China.”
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He believes there may be a risk of espionage by China in these initiatives. “Perhaps because it is not perceived as a direct adversary of China, Brazil has a little less of this aspect [of espionage]. But perhaps there is ‘soft espionage’ here: knowing where Brazil stands in certain areas of knowledge, in order to later use this as a strategic advantage in a possible competition in some area or to offer solutions,” he says.
“This is more or less what it [China] does in Africa by other means. In other words: meeting local demand pragmatically at first, but making these countries increasingly dependent on China,” Castro added.
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Australian University students and staff face increasing threats, foreign interference inquiry finds -- (2022)
[Australian] Universities face escalating threats to students and to national security from hostile forces, a report into foreign interference has warned [...] The report [...] specifically singled out Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes, a $10m deal between Monash University and a Chinese company linked to industrial espionage, and talent recruitment drives that see Australian researchers work with universities overseas.
Finland shuts down Confucius Institute amid censorship, espionage accusations -- (2022)
A cooperation contract between Helsinki University and the Confucius Institute will be terminated following accusations of spreading Chinese soft power, conducting espionage, and an attempt to block discussions on Tibet. [...] Belgium closed its Confucius Institute in 2019, Sweden and Denmark in 2020, and Norway in 2021.
Chinese students signing a “loyalty” pledges to the Chinese motherland before arriving in their host country, as shows the example of Sweden.
Chinese students signing “loyalty” pledges before arrival in Sweden -- (2023)
International doctoral students who are arriving in Sweden from China are being told to sign agreements and guidelines to the Chinese government, an investigation has revealed [...] The Chinese regime requires that they also must “serve the interests of the regime” and “never participate in ‘activities’ that go against the will of the authorities”, the report said.
Sweden, Germany, and many other countries have been cutting ties with the China scholarship scheme over this practice already.
And these are just a few examples. There is much more.