‘Systematically dismantled’: Hegseth’s new offensive against China’s Confucius Institutes
Defence secretary says Beijing-backed organisations on US campuses have been added to Pentagon list of threats to national security
Long viewed by critics as instruments of Beijing’s soft power and cultural diplomacy, the institutes are back in the crosshairs of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who says the Pentagon has “systematically dismantled” organisations that resurfaced under new names.
Hegseth announced on Friday that the Pentagon had added what he described as Chinese government-backed organisations operating on American campuses to its list of institutions deemed threats to national security.
“Eighty 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,” Hegseth said in a video posted to his official “Secretary of War” social media account.
