Claim: All Confucius Institutes in Pakistan have been shut down. Confucius Institutes are Chinese language and culture centers set up through partnerships between universities in Pakistan and the Chinese International Education Foundation.
Fact: Confucius Institutes in Pakistan remain operational.
Fact or Fiction?
In a 15 May 2022 tweet, TV personality Orya Maqbool Jan stated the following:
پاکستان میں چینی زبان سکھانے والے پانچ کنفیوشش سنٹر تھے ۔ پانچوں بند کر دئیے گئے ، عملہ چین واپس ۔ جب سے چین پاکستان دوستی کا آغاز ہوا ہے یہ پہلا منفی فیصلہ ہوا ہے ۔ اب بھی کسی کو یقین نہیں آتا کہ ہمیں امریکہ کے ہاتھوں بیچ دیا گیا ہے
[There were five Chinese Language Confucius Centres in Pakistan. All five have been shut down, staff returned to China. Since the beginning of the China-Pakistan friendship, this is the first negative decision. Still, no one believes that we have been sold at the hands of America]
Just over two weeks prior to Jan’s tweet, on 26 April 2022, three Chinese teachers were killed in a suicide explosion at the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. The Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi was jointly established by the University of Karachi and Sichuan Normal University in China in 2013.
Screenshots of Jan’s tweet started spreading on social media soon after it was published, with some media outlets also featuring the claim in news reports. The topic was also discussed on online forums.
Many social media users expressed doubts over the authenticity of the tweet, and on 17 May 2022, China state-affiliate account چین اردو issued the following statement on Twitter:
چینی زبان سلھانے والے تمام سینٹر کھلے ہیں ۔ اس کے علاوہ تمام چینی کمپنیاں اور ادارے پہلے کی طرح معمول کے مطابق کام کر رہے ہیں ۔ پاکستان اور چین مشترکہ طور پر دہشتگردی کے خطرات سے نمٹنے کے لیے جدوجہد کر رہے ہیں ۔
[All Chinese language learning centers are open. Apart from this, all Chinese companies and organizations are functioning normally like before. Pakistan and China are striving together to tackle the dangers of terrorism.]
Pakistan state-affiliated wire service APP also confirmed that the centers are open, quoting a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy.
Virality & Post Origin
As of the date of publishing, the tweet had been shared on Facebook in various forms across 43 posts, receiving a total of 7,364 interactions. This is the oldest relevant post, while this post garnered the most interactions. Other examples can be seen here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Confucius Institutes in Pakistan have not been shut down following the 26 April suicide explosion at the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. Posts claiming otherwise are false.