It is important to recognize that the Confucius Institute locations are considered overseas extensions of the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Chinese government. They operate to promote Chinese language and culture, but only in a manner endorsed by the Chinese government. The U.S. State Department considers these locations a "foreign mission" of the government of China, and so, quite simply, so should all the universities and colleges who host them. Keep in mind the Confucius Institute locations could be parked anywhere. The fact they are on American college campuses is almost irrelevant from the Chinese government viewpoint, and saddles them with no specific obligation to adopt local values or thinking. The fact that they happen to be on academic campuses is simply an advantage to the Chinese government and gives them a thin veneer of academia and objectivity that doesn't really exist. It is never going to agree with normal university value systems. The universities have to either tolerate it, or ask them to leave. They don't like the first choice, but they hate the optics of the second choice even more.
