While Western governments are turning against Chinese cultural centers, developing countries are giving them a warmer welcome.
The inaugural Southeast Asia Confucius Institutes Joint Conference, themed ‘Coordinated Innovation for Steady Progress’, was held in Beijing, from July 20-21, 2023. Credit: Khon Kaen University
With cameras snapping away, nearly 300 scholars, businessmen and government officials gathered in a university hall earlier this month to celebrate the opening of a new Confucius Institute at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. The fourteenth in the South American country, the school was hailed as a “new symbol of Sino-Brazilian friendship.”
Brazil’s growing number of Confucius Institutes — state-funded programs that promote Chinese language and culture — is part of a wider trend of expansion as China makes a push into the global South.
In June, Saudi Arabia inaugurated its first Confucius Institute in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh. In March, officials in Djibouti toasted the second institute in the East African country: It has already enrolled more than 600 students. These new chapters are among some 500 state-linked schools operating across the world since the initiative began in 2004.
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