By Tommy Thin
The UK’s relationship with China is indisputably complex. This much is acknowledged by the British Government itself in the House of Lords’ digital library which weighs up “economic ties” and the importance of China as a trading partner against “disagreements on issues such as human rights” – so diplomatically put.
The British government and other British institutions constantly face this diplomatic tug-of-war, with good consciences pushing them away from China and its human rights record and the state’s immense wealth pulling them back in. For some British universities, it seems the tension on that rope threatens to snap. With a number of stories of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) soft-power in British universities making the news in 2023 – from over-reliance on tuition from Chinese students to Westminster spies recruited on university study-abroad programmes – these stories are surfacing at an alarming rate. A better understanding of how China manages its soft-power mechanisms and the threat they pose to Britain’s highly esteemed educational institutions is needed.
While the concerns one might have with how the CCP treats its own citizens can be easily pointed to, the state’s international goals are often less clearly defined. Leading China scholar Prof. Steve Tsang clarifies this, stating that the CCP “would like to see a Sino-centric world” and one in which China is viewed as “the most magnificent country that others admire and follow”. Seemingly, global economic hegemony will not be enough if the West doesn’t succumb to accept the brilliance of the party’s politics as well. To many this might seem a vague or abstract goal, possibly even a strange and unattainable one to a liberal and free-thinking Western mind damning of the practices of the Chinese government. But however strange this might seem, it certainly appears consistent with the function of the Confucius Institutes.
Founded in 2004, the Confucius Institutes are non-profit educational centres established jointly by Chinese and overseas educational institutes, with the ostensible function of promoting “mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit” between China and the rest of the world. Now, there are Confucius Institutes on six continents at some of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions, including thirty UK universities – Edinburgh, Manchester, and UCL among them. On the surface, there might be good reason to see all this as positive and to accept the stated goals of the Confucius Institute as honest. Certainly, having a better understanding of Chinese culture and history is important as the rest of the world comes to terms with this relatively new global power. And the Confucius Institutes might quite honestly seek ‘mutual respect’ and ‘friendly consultation’, but whether these are the terms that other international powers wish to consult China on should be decided independently, and blindly preparing future generations to view China simply as a benign power is undoubtedly misguided. Additionally, regardless of whether these founding intentions are considered honest, they have since been abused by the CCP’s use of elicit Visa schemes, fast-tracking party officials ordered to promote party values. Together, these developments have led Western academics to the view that Confucius Institutes are a twenty-first century ‘Trojan Horse’, helping China to masquerade as a benign power.[1]
Still, what might seem to be clear reason to roll-back support for these institutions is yet to materialise into any real change in government or universities’ policy. Rishi Sunak’s stance has been confused and without any obvious direction. Having originally pledged to shut-down all Confucius Institutions across the UK in his campaign for Tory Party leadership – declaring them “the biggest long-term threat to Britain” – in May 2023 the government announced this policy would be ‘disproportionate’ and it was consequently abandoned. Again, following the ‘Visa-scheme scandal’, it was widely suspected that the government would roll-back funding if not shut-down the institutions altogether – this too is yet to materialise.[2] Now, with a newly appointed Foreign Secretary – with historically friendly relations to China – and pressing issues of international diplomacy in Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, there seems to be little prospect of developing government policy on China’s soft-power. This stands in stark contrast to the US, where the number of Confucius Institutes has fallen from around 100 to fewer than five since 2019.
A likely explanation for the UK’s relative inaction can be found in UK universities’ direct and indirect collaboration and cooperation with China through intake of students, joint research projects, and funding from Chinese corporations.
High numbers of fee-paying Chinese students appears to pose the biggest domestic threat as geopolitical tensions with China rise and universities maintain a “cross your fingers strategy” – as faculty at King’s College London (KCL) have described it. Rather than de-escalating risk and relying less on tuition paid in from China, the report from KCL shows that in some areas such as post-doctoral degrees, British universities are taking in an increasing number of Chinese students. From 2017/18 to 2021/22, the percentage of Chinese doctoral entrants increased by ten percent. Still, this is far from a one-dimensional issue. It’s perfectly plausible to argue that the most noble course of action for British universities to take, in the face of China’s threatening regime, is to allow in more Chinese students, providing them with liberal higher education. But as far as finances are concerned it may prove extremely problematic to maintain a high ratio of Chinese students to home students, as the Office for Students warned 23 high-risk universities last year. One possible solution to this has been offered by Times Higher Education, suggesting that raising tuition fees for home students would mitigate the risk posed by a rift with China. Predictably though, this solution would be unpopular among much of the British public making it an extremely undesirable policy for parties to adopt.
Looking beyond problems in the student body, other changes could be made much more easily to cut ties with China. Take for example the University of Edinburgh, which received in excess of £12 million in funding from “organisations with affiliations to the Chinese military”. Or even look to the research conducted by faculty at Imperial College London in 2019 on the use of AI technology in military affairs, done – quite astonishingly – in collaboration with JARI, a research institute based in China and with links to the Chinese military. Whatever the motivations might be for collaboration with China, collectively, the consequence for many universities is that they are hamstrung by an over-reliance on Chinese funding and could be living in a house of cards should British relations with China take a sudden down-turn.
All possible indicators suggest this crisis for British universities is going to be difficult to resolve. With other issues in international diplomacy taking priority over the government addressing Confucius Institutes, they are likely to continue operating for the time being – casting an image of China as a harmless and cooperative country to our future generations. Similarly, in terms of over-reliance on Chinese students’ tuition, solutions such as increasing home students’ fees are unlikely to be pursued in light of them being unpopular on the British political agenda. So, while the 2024 General Election in Britain looms large, perhaps some of the focus ought to shift away from domestic issues of the moment towards existential issues of the future as the power of the CCP in Britain grows in the shadows.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own, and may not reflect the opinions of The St Andrews Economist.
Image Source: Unsplash
[1] James F Paradise, “China and International Harmony: The Role of Confucius Institutes in Bolstering Beijing’s Soft Power” Asian Survey, Vol.49, No.4, p.647
[2] Patrick Wintour, ‘UK expected to stop funding Chinese state-linked Mandarin teaching schools’, The Guardian
Ben Riley-Smith, ‘Home Office looking at stopping special Mandarin teaching visa scheme over links to Beijing’, The Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/17/confucius-institutes-home-office-braverman-china-uk/