To the editor:

The Journal-World’s June 21 article describing the Douglas County Democratic Party event held at the Lawrence Arts Center on June 20 was most interesting. I’m sure that those in attendance were excited by Rep. John Wilson’s criticism of Koch-brother influence on the recently completed session of the Kansas Legislature. Unfortunately, when naming the groups that were “fist-bumping” at the end of the session he failed to mention the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

I suggest that he and the other Lawrence legislators who spoke at the event, including Rep. Barbara Ballard, Rep. Boog Highberger, Sen. Marci Francisco and Sen. Tom Holland, read Dolph Simons, Jr.’s “Saturday Column” of May 30. In that column, Mr. Simons points out that, for some reason, those with an “anti-Koch” attitude don’t express concern about “the Communist Chinese government injecting its influence and beliefs into the KU academic scene” through its KU Confucius Institute (CI).

Last year the American Association of University Professors issued a policy statement asking American universities to close their CIs because they “function as an arm of the Chinses state.” What was the response of the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Legislature? Instead of asking KU to close its CI and save money for other educational activities, they doubled funding for the program by opening a second CI at Kansas State University. I think the legislators mentioned above need to explain why they gave this CCP program such a high funding priority and caused “fist-bumping” or its equivalent to occur among CCP officials in Beijing.