Sweden has closed all Confucius Institutes and Classrooms

The deteriorating bilateral ties between Sweden and China has resulted in closure of all Confucius Institutes in Sweden – making the Scandinavian country the first country in Europe to close all institutes and classrooms.

The decision has been prompted by growing Swedish concern regarding Chinese security, disregard for human rights violations, oppression of ethnic- and religious minority groups and the jailing of Gui Minhai, the Swedish bookseller and poet from Hong Kong.

The last institute was announced closed by Luleå University of Technology, in late December 2019 – but was officially closed in late January. On 23 April, the last Confucius classroom at Falkenberg Secondary School was terminated, but will properly close in late May, reported Radio Sweden and Radio P4.

The closure of the Confucius Institutes has also resulted in termination of exchange programmes and twin-cities between Chinese- and Swedish cities and therefore future exchange students will have to finance their exchange program with the help of private loans.

Confucius Institutes are public educational institutions under the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, that aim to ‘promote Chinese language and culture, support Chinese teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchange’.

About Sofia Flittner

Journalist • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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20 Comments on “Sweden has closed all Confucius Institutes and Classrooms”

  1. This is an example of the ‘soft power’ China is trying to exert. They are flooding into Africa, and buying up everything, lending financial assistance to countries that will never ever be able to pay it back, and therefor give China ‘a foot in the door’
    The Confucious Institutes are a more subtle way of gaining access, but with the same objective. Control.

  2. Indeed, and stop buying the shoddy, cheap items mass produced by “slave” labor; their food, clothing and medicinal products, which involve the most cruel, abusive and unspeakable horrors perpetrated on innocent animals for their body parts to be used in their traditional medicines. There are no humane laws to protect dogs and cats from the torture they endure, ending up on the dinner plate, or as fur trim and trinkets. They are a sorry, uncivilized lot!

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