The War Department has designated Confucius Institutes a threat to national security, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday in a video posted on X.
“Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs” like Confucius Institutes had infiltrated universities in almost every state, he said, before Congress banned such institutes years ago, but they returned under different names.
“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,” Hegseth said.
The department systematically dismantled each one within the past two months, he said. The move followed university audits completed earlier this month….