The headquarters of China's Confucius Institute, commonly known as Hanban, on Saturday denied an online accusation that all of the institute's branches in the U.S. had been shut down, saying they are all operating as usual.
"All 109 Confucius Institutes in the U.S. are operating normally, and not a single institute has been shut down," Hanban said in a statement released on the organization's website on Saturday.
The statement slammed a Thursday article allegedly posted by WeChat account "Jinwen365" as "completely fabricated and wrong."
The accusatory article, which has been reposted by the official WeChat accounts of several influential individuals, also noted that the institute has been suffering from huge financial losses caused by a lack of transparency in its operations and financial management.
Deriving its name from the renowned Chinese educator and philosopher Confucius, who lived from 551 BC to 479 BC, the Confucius Institutes are non-profit institutions affiliated with China's Ministry of Education. Their mission is primarily to promote Chinese language and culture at schools and universities throughout the world.
China had opened 500 Confucius Institutes and 1,000 Confucius classrooms in 135 countries as of the end of 2015, according to the latest annual development report released by Hanban.
According to the reports, the headquarters spent $310 million on all Confucius Institutes and classrooms worldwide in 2015, including $228 million on operational funds.
A total of 1.9 million people are studying Chinese language and culture in 500 Confucius Institutes and 1,000 Confucius classrooms in 134 countries, Wang Yongli, deputy chief of Hanban, said in December.
