CONFUCIUS: Choosing to opt out

This summer, the Confucius Institute is bringing a course on Chinese History & Culture to Coeur d’Alene, courtesy of the University of Idaho. While I do not personally know the locals who are participating in this event (they may be great folks), I know the Confucius Institute. It is the arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dedicated to re-educate professionals in the West in harmony with Beijing’s Party Line.

Being familiar with the history of the CCP, I thought that I might see how the course explored China’s use of face-recognition technology to create a surveillance state that would make Big Brother blush. Would they study the systematic cultural and physical genocide being practiced today against Uighurs, Tibetans, and other non-Han minorities? Would they welcome exploring the religious persecution of Falun-Gong, Buddhists, and the worst persecution of Christians since Diocletian? Would they accept analysis of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, or the Tiananmen Square massacre?

The CCP has murdered between 10-20 Chinese for every Jew that the Nazis murdered. They have killed between 4-8 human beings for every person murdered by Hitler, and at least double the number killed by Stalin. They tried to kill China’s culture, language, family, and memory to replace it with their utopia. They now use the name of a philosopher targeted for destruction by Mao as one of the “Four Olds.” I shall not give legitimacy to this CCP propaganda exercise by my participation. I hope that you will do the same.

RALPH K. GINORIO

Coeur d’Alene