Earlier this year, the New Brunswick education minister received a virtually unannounced visit from China’s top diplomat in eastern Canada, eager to lobby him on a controversial issue.
The Montreal-based consul general urged the province not to eject the Confucius Institute from its schools, warning that doing so could imperil New Brunswick’s growing trade with China.
“He told me about how the Confucius Institute had nothing at all to do with Chinese government, then very strongly expressed concerns this might adversely impact trade relationships with China and the Chinese government,” the minister recalled in an interview Tuesday. “It also turned out his translator was someone who was a teacher for the Confucius Institute.”
Despite the lobbying, and criticism from a former Canadian ambassador to Beijing and the province’s Liberal opposition, Cardy’s Progressive Conservative government announced Monday it will, in fact, end the school system’s contract with Confucius.
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