(The Economist) Jan 20th 2011 | BEIJING | from PRINT EDITION
A WEEK before President Hu Jintao’s visit to America on January 18th the appearance of a giant bronze statue of Confucius on the east side of Tiananmen Square caused a stir in the Chinese capital. He is the first non-revolutionary to be commemorated on the hallowed ground of Chinese communism. The party, having once vilified the ancient sage, now depends on him in its attempts at global rebranding.
Mao Zedong, the only other figure permanently honoured at Tiananmen (a portrait of Sun Yat-sen is displayed twice a year), is considered a bit too controversial among foreigners to be part of this image-moulding effort. In 2004 China began setting up language schools abroad to extend its cultural reach. They were called Confucius Institutes, apparently to boost their appeal by disguising any links with communism.
During his trip to America, Mr Hu hopes Confucius will help him connect with ordinary Americans. His itinerary includes a visit to a high school in Chicago that is home to a Confucius Institute. Of about 320 such institutes worldwide, over one-fifth are in America. The United States is also home to more than 200 offshoot “Confucius Classrooms”.
China has been careful not to encourage these language centres to act as overt purveyors of the party’s political viewpoints, and little suggests they are doing so. But officials do say that an important goal is to give the world a “correct” understanding of China. An online Confucius Institute, also supported by the Chinese government, includes an article noting the “active” efforts of some unspecified Confucius Institutes in opposing independence for Tibet and Xinjiang, pro-democracy activism and the Falun Gong sect.
Promoting Confucianism is not part of their remit. Party officials use Confucius as a Father-Christmas-like symbol of avuncular Chineseness rather than as the proponent of a philosophical outlook. (Mao was more concerned with the philosophy, which he rallied the nation to attack as a legacy of the bad old days.) The new Confucius statue, on the other hand, appears to have struck a wrong note. Of more than 820,000 responses to an online poll conducted by the party newspaper, the People’s Daily, 62% opposed it. Mr Hu’s efforts at rebranding need some more explaining at home.