Xu Lin (Hanban)

During this time she also held the post of Assistant Mayor of Xuchang, Henan province (October 1991-September 1993) and then Director of the Foreign Loans Office of the Ministry of Education.

[20] Roger Greatrex, President of the EACS, subsequently issued a report on the deletion of pages from conference materials and a wrote public letter of protest against Hanban's interference.

These expurgated pages contained information regarding: When Roger Greatrex, president of the EACS, learned of this censorship, he ordered that 500 copies of the original program immediately be printed and distributed to participants.

[23] He later wrote, "The seizure of the materials in such an unauthorized manner, after the conference had already begun, was extremely injudicious, and has promoted a negative view of the Confucius Institute Headquarters".

"[24] Tseng Shu-hsien (曾淑賢), director-general of the National Central Library, stated that EACS officials and members had spoken out against Xu during the opening ceremony.

[29][30] The Wall Street Journal suggests that this EACS report about the Confucius Institute's "bullying approach to academic freedom" should be a summer reading program for the president of every American university that hosts a CI.

[33] On 25 September 2014, the University of Chicago stated that it had suspended negotiations to renew its CI contract because "recently published comments about UChicago in an article about the director-general of Hanban are incompatible with a continued equal partnership.

"[42] Commenting on the "sinister" EACS/Braga incident as well, Gary Rawnsley, a British professor and expert on international diplomacy and communication, wrote, "Xu Lin could not have picked a worse time "to assert her imaginary authority".

[43] The Australian Business Spectator, describing the EACS incident as "highly damaging" for China's international image, wrote, "Xu's hardline behaviour highlights one of the biggest problems for Beijing's charm offensive.

[46] "Xu Lin not only refused to answer difficult questions, she also politicised the Confucius Institutes and reinforced the idea that they are led by dogmatists," commented Gary Rawnsley, professor of Public Diplomacy at Aberystwyth University, Wales.

[47] The Wall Street Journal reported on Xu's BBC interview, and said, "Critics have argued that China's Confucius Institutes pose a threat to academic freedom in the United States, Canada, Europe and beyond.