孔子学院是帮助各国人民学习中文、了解中国、加强中国与各国教育、文化交流与合作的桥梁和纽带。长期以来，美国孔子学院都是大学自愿申请，中美大学本着“相互尊重、友好协商、平等互利”的原则合作成立的，其运作管理公开透明，严格遵守当地法律，恪守大学各项规范，为促进中美人文交流作出了积极贡献，受到所在大学和美国各界的普遍欢迎。

一段时间以来，美国一些人出于意识形态偏见和一己私利，对包括孔子学院在内的中美合作项目正常运作粗暴干扰、横加阻挠，完全不可接受。我们也注意到，蓬佩奥在其声明中大量引用毫无事实依据的所谓报告和报道，其无中生有、罗织罪名打压孔子学院的用心可见一斑。 

The Confucius Institutes have long served as a bridge and bond between China and other countries in education and cultural communication and exchange, which enables people in other countries to learn the Chinese language and understand China. All the Confucius Institutes in the US are jointly established in American universities based on their voluntary application and in line with the principle of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit by the Chinese and American universities. The operation and management of the Confucius Institutes is open and transparent in strict compliance with local law and regulations of these universities. Their contributions to the cultural and people-to-people exchange between China and the US have been widely applauded by the universities and others in the US.  

I must point out that for some time certain people in the US, driven by ideological prejudice and selfish gains, have been grossly and unscrupulously disrupting and obstructing China-US cooperation projects, including the operation of the Confucius Institutes. This is just unacceptable. We also noted that Pompeo cited a lot of baseless reports in his statement, which reveals his intention to oppress the Confucius Institutes under unfounded pretexts.

Notes 注释

[1] grossly: 极度地

[2] unscrupulously: 不择手段地 

[3] pretext: 借口