Both the College Republican National Committee and the College Democrats of America signed an open letter demanding the closure of Confucius Institutes that are stationed at U.S. college campuses across the country.
The institutes claim to be a vehicle for promoting Chinese culture and language worldwide, with academic style courses and teachers, that share information about contemporary China.
The letter claims Communist China is funding the institutes to enact coercive measures within American colleges and universities and brands them a threat to educational freedom.
“The Chinese government’s flagrant attempts to coerce and control discourse at universities in the United States and around the world pose an existential threat to academic freedom as we know it,” the message states. “It is a civic and moral imperative that we protect that freedom.”