美国审查孔子学院  要求部分学院教师离境>>>

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.

【新闻快讯】美国国务院5月17号发布一份公告要求不符合J-1访问学者签证的美国孔子学院中国教师在6月30号前离开美国，美国国务院24号向凤凰记者澄清表示这个公告被误解，美国将确保没有教师会因此而被迫离境。

美国国务院5月17号发布的这份公告中，强调持有J-1签证的孔子学院大学教师不得在中小学授课，而违反这一规定的教师在6月30号必须离开美国重新申请其他类别的签证。据悉，目前孔子学院在美国约600名雇员中有至少51人持有J-1签证。

美国国务院24号就公告特别作出澄清，表示美国重视与中国的文化交流，此次事件不针对孔子学院，美国将确保没有教师会因此被迫离境，具体细节美中双方还在进一步磋商。美国国务院发言人纽兰：“首先我要表示，美国非常重视与中国人与人的交流。这个公告不针对孔子学院，这仅仅是关于正确的签证状态是否被运用在案件中。”

美国国务院发言人纽兰表示将会尽力解决这个问题，不让任何人被迫离开。虽然美国确实有政治势力不断抹黑孔子学院，今年3月美国国会众议员罗尔巴克尔就曾指责中国通过私营媒体和公共教育“进行宣传”。不过纽兰表示，这次事件与国会无关。

美国国务院发言人纽兰：“我们是在与国会对话。但是这个事件不是这样的。这是关于（教师）在院校教学是否在正确的签证类别中。” 美国国务院官员表示此次事件中美双方确实存在误解，目前双方正在进行沟通，希望能把危害降到最低。