To the editor:

News Item: On Sept. 29, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute announced that a high-ranking Chinese government official had warned him that giving this year’s peace prize to the jailed Chinese human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo would harm relations between Norway and China. Liu’s “crime,” for which he received an 11-year sentence last December, was to co-author a document calling for the end to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dominance in China.

Liu Xiaobo’s harsh sentence and the Chinese government’s threats against the Nobel Institute should be of interest to Kansas University Chancellor Gray-Little because of KU’s propaganda partnership with the CCP in operating the so-called Confucius Institute at the Edwards Campus. The purpose of these “institutes,” as a Financial Times article stated last week, is to “present a world view that is in line with Chinese Communist party objectives.” Obviously, running its Confucius Institute makes KU an agent for the CCP promoting CCP interests.

Chancellor Hemenway established the CCP-KU relationship, and his loyalty to his CCP partner was impressive. He never publicly criticized the CCP or China’s CCP-controlled government, no matter how brutal their repressive acts in Tibet or elsewhere. Hopefully, Chancellor Gray-Little has a different value system and will issue a statement explaining that operating the Confucius Institute for the benefit of the CCP does not mean that KU approves of Liu Xiaobo’s imprisonment or Chinese threats against the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

Gary J. Bjorge,

Lawrence