Strong panel strongly advises against further funding for the institute
Ingolstadt - On May 11, the city council is scheduled to vote on further municipal support for the Audi Confucius Institute, but as already reported, there is now clear resistance to this in parts of local politics.
Tenor: In view of the increasingly totalitarian behavior of the Chinese leadership towards dissenters and entire ethnic groups in its sphere of power, the institution should no longer be supported with tax money. The critics were strengthened in their view on Saturday by a high-profile online discussion round organized by the Ingolstadt Action Alliance for the Protection of Uyghur Human Rights and the World Uyghur Congress.
The exchange of opinions via an Internet platform was attended as panel guests by members of the Bundestag Margarete Bause (Greens) and Martin Patzelt (CDU), state parliament vice president Markus Rinderspacher (SPD), Ursula Dusolt from the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) and Ingolstadt FDP city councilor Karl Ettinger. The round, which was joined by more than 20 onlookers, including several city council members from (almost) all camps, was moderated by Franz Seitz from the Action Alliance.
Throughout, the participants in the discussion were very critical of previous experiences with Confucius Institutes worldwide, but especially in Germany and of course in Bavaria, where there are three such institutions, including the one in Ingolstadt. In the city the institute, which was promoted so far with 50000 euro from the local budget, had before five years particularly on desire of the AUDI AG foothold, which maintains as well-known as the entire VW company intensive economic contacts to China and produces there also. For the time being, the institution, which is officially intended primarily to teach Chinese culture, is based at the Technical University (THI). read more