Pentagon designates Confucius Institutes a national security threat
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces Confucius Institutes added to list of national security threats amid claims of 80 disguised propaganda cells at 30 universities.
At a glance
- The Pentagon has designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security.
- Pete Hegseth claims 80 propaganda cells operated at 30 universities under new names.
- The Pentagon says it has systematically dismantled all these organisations over two months.
- The Chinese embassy did not respond to requests for comment.
The United States Department of Defense has designated Confucius Institutes, Chinese-funded cultural centres on university campuses, as a threat to US national security.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the move on Friday in a video posted on social media, saying the Pentagon added the organisations to its list of institutions that threaten national security.
Washington has long accused the centres of serving as Chinese propaganda tools and has taken steps to crack down on them.
Hegseth said Confucius Institutes had operated in disguise after being restricted by Congress, calling them "sleeper organisations".
"It turns out that 80 new propaganda cells across 30 universities had popped up using different names and different charters, but with the same mission: to steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students," he said.
In the video, Hegseth said that Chinese government-backed cultural programmes had infiltrated universities and reappeared in new guises despite congressional restrictions.
Over the past two months, the Pentagon has "systematically dismantled every single one of these organisations," he said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Source: Al Jazeera.
Questions and answers
- What did the Pentagon designate as a national security threat?
- The Pentagon designated Confucius Institutes, Chinese-funded cultural centres on university campuses, as a threat to US national security.
- How many propaganda cells did Pete Hegseth claim were operating at universities?
- Pete Hegseth claimed 80 new propaganda cells operated across 30 universities using different names and charters.
- What did the Pentagon say it did to these organisations?
- The Pentagon stated it has 'systematically dismantled every single one of these organisations' over the past two months.
