北京：孔子学院从未干涉他国学术自由

choi

BBC Chinese, Dec 5, 2014.
www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/worl ... confucius_institute

the last two paragraphs:

"美联社引述加州大学河滨分校（University of California, Riverside）的中国问题专家林培瑞（Perry Link）说，孔子学院是中国政府的 '中庸手段，' 借此在美国高等教育当中建立立足据点。

"维斯理学院（Wellesley College）的社科院教授托马斯·库什曼（Thomas Cushman）则表示，中国政府努力与美国大学建立合作联系，是属于试图对西方施加 '软性影响力' 的一种策略。

My comment: The BBC report cites
Matthew Pennington, Scholars: China Gov't Gets Foothold on US Campuses. Associated Press, Dec 4, 2014.
hosted2.ap.org/SCUNI/4d49790eb2c342c492bae4c40c40f146/Article_2014-12-04-US--United%20States-China-Universities/id-26c9e38be16840f99157920509e4de76

But the AP report does not say 中庸手段, whose meaning is unclear to me in this context (of BBC).

Here are all references to these two professors, in this AP report:

Quote:

(a) "Perry Link, a China expert and chancellorial chair at the University of California at Riverside, said independent scholar-to-scholar exchanges with China should be encouraged.

"But he said the Communist Party of China opposes the exchanges and prefers to negotiate campus-to-campus cooperation. He said inexperienced U.S. academic administrators, eager for funding, reach protocols with party officials that allow authorities in Beijing to choose teachers and set curricula that provide a rosy 'cameo' of China.

"Thomas Cushman, a professor in social sciences at Wellesley College, said the Chinese government's effort to forge ties with U.S institutions is part of a more general 'soft power' strategy toward the West.

(b) "'For decades, the primary strategy of the CPC in censoring its own people has been to induce self-censorship,' Link said, referring to the Communist Party of China. 'Now the CPC, stronger and wealthier than before, is looking to project these battle-tested methods onto the world stage.'

"Cushman said US scholars of China are careful what they say in public so they can keep visiting. He said that leads to a 'beautified' version of China that avoids the realities of repression.

"Link said he's been blacklisted since the mid-1990s and gets two or three inquiries per month from younger scholars wanting to know what they should avoid saying in order not to be barred.

"Cushman also contended that professors on US campuses may avoid discussing sensitive tops about China in their classes out of fear of negative evaluations by the growing number of Chinese students.