Community Event Seemingly Linked to Confucius Institute Focuses on China’s Rise, Denouncing Its Critics

The International Building at Griffith University where the Tourism Confucius Institute operates on the Gold Coast campus. (Richard Szabo/The Epoch Times) and the Confucius statue at Gold Coast Chinatown, which was partly funded by the Confucius Institute. Shiftchange/Wikimedia Commons CC

GOLD COAST, Australia—The Tourism Confucius Institute of Griffith University held a free “reading community activity” at the Gold Coast’s Southport Library on Nov. 30 that was advertised as a seminar about Chinese culture.

However, people who attended could be forgiven for thinking it was an event by the Beijing-backed Confucius Institute on how China is rising in the world and why those who criticize Beijing are wrong.