MANILA, July 31 (Reuters) - The Philippine Department of National Defense said on Friday that foreign state-backed academic and cultural exchange programmes needed to be put under greater scrutiny, amid concerns about the influence of Chinese state-linked institutions on local education.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said public scrutiny and institutional transparency regarding foreign state funding in local education were "fundamental duties of national governance" and were necessary to protect both academic integrity and national security.
An investigation published this week by U.S.-based think tank SeaLight identified China's Jinan University as the primary training destination for Chinese-language teachers working in Chinese-Filipino schools in the Philippines. Scholars from the university earlier claimed that the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes belonged to China.
In an article published on Thursday by China's state-run Global Times, Dai Fan, director of the Center for Philippine Studies at Jinan University, said Philippine authorities were stretching the concept of national security too far and were treating Chinese-language education programmes as a security risk without providing sufficient evidence.
But the Philippine defence department said China's National Security Law requires citizens, educational institutions and private organisations to cooperate with state intelligence agencies, raising concerns about the independence of academic exchanges involving Chinese state-linked entities.
It said its security evaluations were aimed at countering "foreign malign influence, co-optation, and covert interference" and were not directed at the Filipino-Chinese community.
Beijing-run institutions, including Jinan University, were invoking academic freedom despite operating in an environment in China where free speech was restricted, dissent punished and politically sensitive subjects censored, it added.
"Genuine academic freedom cannot exist within state-owned propaganda channels where free speech is suppressed, dissenting views from the party line are immediately criminalized, and history itself is heavily censored, most notably the violent suppression of students at Tiananmen Square," it said.
The remarks were an unusual instance of a Philippine government agency invoking issues that Beijing regards as highly sensitive. As well as the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Tiananmen, the defence ministry also referred to Chinese policies affecting Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Nestor Corrales; Editing by David Stanway)
