WASHINGTON: The US Protection Division has designated Chinese language-funded cultural facilities on college campuses generally known as Confucius Institutes as a risk to the USA’ nationwide safety, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned on Friday (Oct 23).
Washington has lengthy accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese language propaganda instruments and has taken steps to crack down on them.
Hegseth, in a video posted on social media, alleged that Confucius Institutes had been working below disguise at US universities and that the Pentagon had added them to its record of establishments that threaten US nationwide safety.
“It seems that 80 new propaganda cells throughout 30 universities had popped up utilizing totally different names and totally different charters, however with the identical mission: to steal mental property and to infiltrate the minds of American college students,” Hegseth mentioned.
The Protection Division over the previous two months has “systematically dismantled each single one in all these organisations,” he mentioned.
The Chinese language embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
