Senate inquiry finds problems with China-funded Confucius Institute at US campuses

WASHINGTON - Illustrating the wide range of U.S. grievances with China, a Senate committee released a report Wednesday highly critical of the Beijing-funded Confucius Institute, which operates centers at about 100 American universities.

After an eight-month probe, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations described systemic problems in the institute's language programs, saying they lack transparency, threaten academic freedom and give the Chinese government access to the U.S. education system that China does not extend to American programs.

Senate investigators uncovered no evidence connecting