Pete Hegseth says 80 ‘propaganda cells’ at 30 universities reappeared under new names and have been dismantled.
The United States Department of Defence has designated Confucius Institutes, Chinese-funded cultural centres on university campuses, as a threat to US national security.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the move on Friday in a video posted on social mediam saying the Pentagon added the organisations to its list of institutions that threaten national security.
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Washington has long accused the centres of serving as Chinese propaganda tools and has taken steps to crack down on them.
Hegseth said Confucian Institutes had operated in disguise after being banned by Congress, calling them “sleeper organizations.”
“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,” he said.
In the video, Hegseth said the Chinese government-backed cultural programs had infiltrated universities and that although Congress had banned them, they reappeared in new guises.
Over the past two months, the Pentagon has “systematically dismantled every single one of these organizations”, he said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.