In an October 23 post on X, Pete Hegseth announced that 80 Chinese cultural centers, known as Confucius Institutes, at 30 university campuses across the U.S. are a threat to national security and have been “systematically dismantled.” These centers are known for offering Mandarin Chinese language classes and cultural activities such as calligraphy and Chinese movie nights.
Most of the centers were closed in 2018 when Congress threatened to cut off federal funding to any university that allowed these centers to operate on its campus, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to one report, the latest 80 have been closed over the past two months, Many “rebranded” after the 2018 Congressional action.
Hegseth stated, “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. Let this be a lesson to any country trying to steal our hard-earned inventions or turn our young people against their own country. We’re done with that. No more, never again. To these universities, I say, just like the Department of War, stay vigilant. Don’t allow these influences to come back in.”
