Pentagon adds campus centers to threat list
The US Defense Department has placed Confucius Institutes, the Chinese-funded cultural centers hosted on American university campuses, on its roster of institutions deemed a danger to national security. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the step on Friday. Washington has for years described the centers as vehicles for Chinese propaganda and has moved to curb their presence, and the Pentagon's decision now gives that campaign a formal military-department label.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]
In a video circulated on social media, Hegseth asserted that the institutes had been running at US universities under cover and that the Pentagon had consequently added them to its list of organizations that threaten national security. He characterized the centers as propaganda operations that had resurfaced in a new form, and he said the defense department had spent the previous two months systematically dismantling each of them.[S1][S7]
Embassy silent as Washington tightens scrutiny
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately answer a request for comment on the designation, leaving the diplomatic response to the Pentagon's move unstated. The announcement extends a broader pattern of American scrutiny of Chinese-funded programs on US campuses, which Washington has long accused of serving as propaganda tools and has sought to restrict through various measures.[S1]
