Abstract
The demise of Confucius Institutes (CI) in the United States was sudden and decisive, as they declined from over 100 to about five in the span of five years. Although much has been written about the CIs in the press, there has been comparably limited academic evaluation of their activities. This article, focusing on reflections on running CIs by two former American directors, suggests that the operation of CIs at the local level was influenced by the faculty involved at the institute rather than by geopolitics. As such, for a better understanding of the function of CIs in the United States, further investigation into local conditions is necessary.