Contract reveals the Free University of Berlin is bound by Chinese law, which critics fear gives Beijing influence over teaching content. A leading German university has been plunged into scandal after it emerged that it had signed a contract binding it to abide by Chinese law while accepting hundreds of thousands of euros from China to set up a professorship to establish a Chinese teacher training programme.
German lawmakers have criticised the Free University of Berlin FU over the terms, which critics fear give the Chinese government leverage to prevent teaching about subjects such as the Tiananmen Square massacre and Tibet. The contract, obtained by the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel , allows the Chinese side to reduce or halt funding if any element of the programme contravenes Chinese law.
Other clauses also place the FU at the mercy of political pressure from China, critics argue. Each year, Hanban β the agency that runs controversial Confucius Institutes in Western universities and is the contractual partner of the FU β is allowed to revoke the agreement at its discretion, according to Tagesspiegel. If the FU wants to end the agreement, however, the conditions are more onerous.
The revelations have drawn condemnation from some German lawmakers. Pressure had been growing on the FU even before these latest revelations. One signatory, David Missal, a Sinologist expelled from China in , said the only acceptable way forward now was to cancel the contract.
It has also emerged that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had concerns about the arrangement going back as far as Critics have also voiced concerns about the language that the FU has used to defend the agreement. Some considered such terms to be an overly detached and neutral way of describing the killing of demonstrators. Nanotechnology innovator charged over alleged links to Chinese state-run academic talent programme, in expanding federal crackdown.
