In the Name of Confucius

The Toronto School Board is protesting the establishment of a Confucius Institute in their school system. Ostensibly teaching the Chinese language with their own teachers brought over from China, the institute is really indoctrinating Canadian youth into Communist Chinese thought by requiring teachers to criticize the Falun Gong, uphold Tibet and Taiwan as part of China, and promote Communist ideology, or so the school board believes. On the other hand, the Confucius Institute is financially advantageous to the college or university with which it is almost always allied, bringing services and strong instructors to nearly a dozen locations in Canada and a few in the United States. Is the institute's self-promotion any different from hundreds of American agencies that advance American democracy abroad? Is the Toronto School Board against communism and therefore against freedom of speech, as opponents assert?