Chinese spend thousands persuading U.S. schools to promote their language, culture

Chinese spend thousands persuading U.S. schools to promote their language, culture « Watchdog.org
"In 2005, Chinese officials were trying to open a Confucius Institute at the University of Oklahoma and invited Paul Bell Jr., the then-College of Arts and Sciences dean, to fly to a conference in Beijing as “one of our special guests.”
...The Chinese paid more than $2,000 to fly Bell to China and an unknown amount more for lodging, records obtained by Watchdog.org under state open records laws show.
A year later, as he led to the effort to establish the institute on campus, the consulate again paid most of the travel expenses — also thousands of dollars — for Bell to fly to China and discuss implementation of the institute, records show.
Hanban covered airfare, accommodations, meals and tour expenses, the invitation noted.
In the past decade, the Chinese have opened hundreds of the institutes and classrooms in universities, high schools and even elementary schools in the United States and around the world in an attempt to teach Chinese language, culture and to increase cultural understanding.
But, as Watchdog.org reported in October, a growing number of academics caution the institutes are propaganda arms of the Chinese government."