China's soft power hard at work

A brilliant day in Miaoli today. Even the butterflies wanted to be photographed.

I've blogged on those disgusting intelligence and propaganda organs of the Chinese, the Confucius Institutes, several times before (most recently and in-depth). From Australia comes heartening news this week:

A petition with more than 4000 signatures tabled in the upper house of the NSW Parliament calls for the government to remove the Confucius Classroom Program from the schools where it operates: Chatswood Public, Fort Street High, Mosman High, Kensington Public, St Marys Senior High, Kingsgrove North High School and Coffs Harbour High.

The government has confirmed that controversial topics, including the Tiananmen Square massacre and China's human rights record, will not be discussed in the program, raising questions about China's influence over content.

The article also notes how little spending was necessary for China to reap propaganda and intelligence gains:

China pays NSW schools more than $200,000 to promote its language and culture through the Confucius Institute, based at the Education Department's Ryde office.

There's not much more you can say about this.
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Daily Links:

• Taiwan makes it to the big time: Andrew Sullivan takes notice of Taiwan's funeral strippers.
• Taiwan Church News on the Lee Teng-hui indictment.
• Scaffolding collapse in Taichung injures 12. David on Formosa was downtown and grabbed several good photos. Start here.
• Farmers rally against land seizures. Expropriations and the Farmer's lot
• Taiwan defeats Cuba in baseball.

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