美國審查孔子學(xué)院? 要求部分學(xué)院教師離境>>>

U.S. Department of State spokesperson Victoria Nuland said on Thursday the department is going to sort out the mess-up in the visa processing issue related to Confucius Institutes in the United States, to which the department referred in a recent directive to U.S. universities.

Nobody Shall Leave

Nuland said in a daily briefing on Thursday that the department is going to "do our best to fix this without having anybody have to leave."

The directive sent by the U.S. Department of State on May 17 to U.S. universities which sponsor Confucius Institutes states that any academics at university-based institutes who are teaching at the primary and secondary-school levels (K-12) are violating the terms of their visas and expected to return China at the end of the current academic school year in June to apply for appropriate visas.

Nuland said the problems referred in the directive is "not about the Confucius Institutes themselves," but "simply about whether the right visa status was applied in these cases."

Nuland explained that there are two categories of J-1 education visa, one kind for teachers in kindergarten through high school while another kind for professors and scholars at university level, where "some muddling and messing up" occurred in the processing.

She said some folks who were participating and teaching in programs that were K-12 level were given university-style J-1 visas.

"Nobody's going to have to leave the country. It's all going to get cleared up," said her.

Confucius Institute Not Targeted

Nuland denied that the directive is targeting Confucius Institutes in the United States, and reiterated the importance of the people-to-people understanding between the United State and China.

"The U.S. greatly values its people-to-people exchange with China," she stressed, "this was one of the centerpieces of the Secretary's (Hillary Clinton) participation in the Strategic and Economic Dialogue."

But Nuland did not speak to why the mess-up occurred nor why the J-1 visas related issues came up now, given that the first Confucius Institute in the country was launched in the University of Maryland back to 2004.

The State Department also said in the directive that it has determined that the Confucius Institutes must obtain separate American accreditation in order to continue to accept foreign scholars and professors as teachers.

But Nuland did not refer to this issue during her briefing.

A report by the U.S. Chronicle of Higher Education said it is unclear what prompted the State Department to issue such a policy statement, as Confucius Institutes have been on American campuses for nearly a decade.

The magazine reported on Wednesday that the State Department " appears to be backpedaling from its insistence in the memorandum" issued last week.

A department official, who spoke with the magazine on the condition of not being named, called this section of the policy statement "confusing" and said it would be redrafted to clarify the issue, the magazine reported on Wednesday.

【新聞快訊】美國國務(wù)院5月17號發(fā)布一份公告要求不符合J-1訪問學(xué)者簽證的美國孔子學(xué)院中國教師在6月30號前離開美國，美國國務(wù)院24號向鳳凰記者澄清表示這個公告被誤解，美國將確保沒有教師會因此而被迫離境。

美國國務(wù)院5月17號發(fā)布的這份公告中，強(qiáng)調(diào)持有J-1簽證的孔子學(xué)院大學(xué)教師不得在中小學(xué)授課，而違反這一規(guī)定的教師在6月30號必須離開美國重新申請其他類別的簽證。據(jù)悉，目前孔子學(xué)院在美國約600名雇員中有至少51人持有J-1簽證。

美國國務(wù)院24號就公告特別作出澄清，表示美國重視與中國的文化交流，此次事件不針對孔子學(xué)院，美國將確保沒有教師會因此被迫離境，具體細(xì)節(jié)美中雙方還在進(jìn)一步磋商。美國國務(wù)院發(fā)言人紐蘭：“首先我要表示，美國非常重視與中國人與人的交流。這個公告不針對孔子學(xué)院，這僅僅是關(guān)于正確的簽證狀態(tài)是否被運(yùn)用在案件中。”

美國國務(wù)院發(fā)言人紐蘭表示將會盡力解決這個問題，不讓任何人被迫離開。雖然美國確實(shí)有政治勢力不斷抹黑孔子學(xué)院，今年3月美國國會眾議員羅爾巴克爾就曾指責(zé)中國通過私營媒體和公共教育“進(jìn)行宣傳”。不過紐蘭表示，這次事件與國會無關(guān)。

美國國務(wù)院發(fā)言人紐蘭：“我們是在與國會對話。但是這個事件不是這樣的。這是關(guān)于（教師）在院校教學(xué)是否在正確的簽證類別中?！?美國國務(wù)院官員表示此次事件中美雙方確實(shí)存在誤解，目前雙方正在進(jìn)行溝通，希望能把危害降到最低。