Confucius Institutes at Australian universities could be the next casualty of strained Beijing-Canberra ties

When the University of Adelaide launched its Confucius Institute in partnership with Shandong University in 2007, Australia’s foreign minister Alexander Downer oversaw the opening ceremony.The Chinese cultural centre was not only uncontroversial, it was welcomed across the board, former director Mobo Gao recalled.“Politicians on both sides, the business community, the education sector and culture sector all collaborated with us and they all liked our programmes,” said Gao, who ran the institute…