“Best practices” among the U.K. Confucius Institutes were represented by the “Confucius Institute for Schools” affiliated with the School of Education (University of London). In the past few years the Confucius Institute has set up an impressive network of Confucius classrooms at secondary schools throughout the country. The network reflects carefully designed strategy to spread Chinese language by supporting local teachers and strengthening whatever Chinese teaching already exists.

In France similar positive results were obtained as far as the spread of Chinese language is concerned. Chinese has become an integral part of the secondary school curriculum. Official teaching plans were promulgated by the French ministry of education, local teaching materials were developed and an “inspector” just for Chinese in secondary schools appointed.

Note that this all concerns the German, the English and French speaking countries in Europe, that is to say larger nations. Confucius Institutes in smaller language groups can seldom submit similar impressive results. Czechs, Albanians, Greeks,… will probably never be able to advertise a similar success story. Speakers of smaller language groups may at best speculate on why it is that things seems to go so much easier in France, Germany or the UK. One of the reasons may be that small languages find themselves locked up in small countries. Once you start spreading Chinese throughout Hungary for example you will soon bump into the borders of your country. Similarly, Czech or Greek speaking countries do not have the vast machinery of the worldwide network of Goethe Institutes, the centres of the Alliance Française or the British Council. Smaller language groups do not have similar institutions that make them feel as if they are on an equal footing with Hanban or at least that they involved in some kind of two way traffic between equal partners.

I remember that I and the members of the board of my Confucius Institute, once visiting our partner Zhejiang Gongshang University were taken to the local centre of the Alliance Française. At that time we were still in the process of building our Confucius Institute in Brugge, and yet had no real premises for our Institute. Zhejiang Gongshang University had just allocated an impressive building on its campus to the Alliance Française to serve as the local centre for the Alliance Française.

First, what made this particular centre interesting is that it was integrated into the university somewhat like Confucius Institutes must be integrated in their host-institutions abroad. Critics of Confucius Institutes in foreign media often denounce China for its determination to insert its Confucius Institutes into the campuses abroad, whereas – they argue - Goethe Institutes or centres of the British Councils are by definition stand-alone institutions. The argument is that Confucius Institutes funded by the Chinese government on campuses abroad are a threat to academic freedom, whereas a cultural institution in its own independent building off campus is not. But what then to make of the Alliance Française in Hangzhou, which is equally funded by a foreign government?

Secondly, what made this visit to the Hangzhou Alliance clear to us, Belgians in particular was that Belgium no network for the spread of Dutch, similar in size to the Confucius Institutes headquarters or Alliance Française headquarters. Neither do the Bulgarians, Czechs, Romanians, Albanians, ….