Legal Consideration on the Confucius Institute Development Process

Abstract

Confucius Institute is not a university or college in general sense. It is a non-profit communicative organization established for spreading Chinese culture and language. Confucius Institute only provides non-degree education and all overseas Confucius institutes are embranchments belonging to the headquarter in Beijing, China. Confucius institutes only adopt Sino-foreign cooperative education model. The development speed of the Confucius institutes is drastic. China has already set up around 700 Confucius institutes and classrooms all over the world. Such rapid development of the Confucius institutes is promoted by the global mandarin fever and Chinese government’s great input. However, after the case that the United States’ government requested some Confucius institutes’ teachers return China last year, the author of this paper realizes the hidden worries brought by fast development and thus tries to give some suggestions on certain legal issues behind this.

Key words: Confucius institute; Legal considerations; Chinese teachers rights