Once again, China's Confucius Institutes are under fire in the US. A congressional subcommittee on Thursday heard from critics who are calling for stricter scrutiny into the Beijing-backed Confucius Institute programs operating in US schools. The subcommittee was told that the programs are muting criticism of China's Communist authorities and projecting a rose-tinted view of the Asian nation, which compromises the academic freedom of US universities.

Criticism of China's Confucius Institutes in the US is hardly new. Factions of politicians and scholars have previously slandered the institutes. Critics dub the Confucius Institutes as veritable "Trojan horses" from Beijing which aim at the pervasion of Chinese ideology into the US and other countries.

They are upset that all faculty members of the institutes are sent from China, worrying that US students are presented a lopsided view of China, since Chinese teachers have not discussed controversial subjects like Tibet and the Falun Gong in class.

The Confucius institutes and classes are set up at the request of the US institutions under the desire to gain a better understanding of China. Many US universities recognize that in view of China's growing influence on the global stage, it is helpful to introduce the Confucius Institutes to equip young students, as future leaders of the US, with deepened knowledge of China.

Kenneth Hammond, director of the Confucius Institute at New Mexico State University, defended the programs in an interview, saying that "should there ever be an attempt by Chinese officials to influence their programming, the university would withdraw from their agreement" with Hanban, the Chinese national office for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

Confucius Institutes are founded to teach the Chinese language and promote Chinese culture abroad. Since the first Confucius Institute in the US was established at the University of Maryland in 2005, nearly 100 institutes have opened up on US campuses. The growing number is a result of robust demand for learning Chinese in the US. It's roughly estimated that the number of students studying Chinese has tripled in recent years.

It's common practice that countries promote their own culture worldwide.

The US is bolstering its own cultural clout through movies and TV dramas as well as education. The vigilance against the intrusion of Confucius Institutes is in fact an indication of a lack of confidence in its own culture.

China never makes an issue of or politicizes the input of US Hollywood blockbusters and the mushrooming branches of US universities in China. Cultural exchange is a critical part of a healthy relationship between China and the US, which requires both to have an open mind.