Academic Freedom · Full chronicle and history

On September 9, 2026, the Scholars at Risk Network released an email addressed to Xi Jinping, urging the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release the Burmese-American scholar Min Htin, who was detained at Kunming Airport on June 3 and later accused of suspected espionage. The email was also copied to several officials on both the Chinese and American sides. This is the second time in two weeks that the organization has spoken out for Min Htin.

The Scholars at Risk Network released an open letter co-signed by scholars, calling attention to the detention in China of Burmese-American scholar Min Hsin after he traveled to Yunnan to take part in an academic activity, and urging that efforts be made to secure his release.

The U.S. State Department listed Chen Youlin and Min Zin as wrongfully detained Americans; Chen Youlin was detained in China in November 2024, Min Zin was detained on June 3, 2026, and the latter was added to the list on August 27.

On August 17, 2026, a new media account under the CCP Central Committee's United Front Work Department reposted an article that characterized the American academic school of the "New Qing History" as a political conspiracy by separatist forces and launched an open criticism of it.

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Committee on Education and the Workforce released a report stating that Harvard University had problems in research collaboration, training programs, and foreign funding disclosures; Harvard disagrees with some of the descriptions in the report.

After years of development, most Confucius Institutes exist in name only, and some U.S. universities have directly closed their Confucius Institutes.

About 15 years ago, Confucius Institutes expanded at American universities under the name of promoting Chinese culture and teaching the Chinese language, and at their peak about 70–80 and 150 universities had Confucius Institutes.