- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that Confucius Institutes continue to operate under various guises at American universities, allegedly pursuing intellectual property theft and Chinese propaganda efforts.
- Key concerns include curriculum self-censorship, direct pressure on host institutions, and a measurable shift in local media coverage favorable to Beijing.
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Defense Department has designated Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses, known as Confucius Institutes, as a threat to U.S. national security, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.
Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of serving as instruments of Chinese propaganda and has moved to restrict their operations. In a social-media video, Hegseth alleged that these institutes were functioning under different names and charters at American universities, and said the Pentagon had added them to its roster of entities threatening U.S. national security.
“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. He added that the Defense Department had “systematically dismantled every single one of these organizations” over the previous two months.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A decades-long pattern of scrutiny
The Pentagon’s action represents the latest escalation in a multi-agency campaign by Washington against Chinese government-backed language and cultural centers.
The initiative gained significant federal momentum on August 13, 2020, when the U.S. Department of State designated the Washington, D.C.-based Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS)—the de facto headquarters coordinating the national network—as a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China. At the time, the State Department cited CIUS’s opacity and state-directed nature, requiring regular reports on its personnel, recruitment, funding, and operational footprint in the United States.
According to the State Department’s 2020 findings, Confucius Institutes were historically parented and directly financed by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), an entity affiliated with Beijing’s Ministry of Education, and operated under the political guidance and oversight of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. U.S. officials noted that as early as 2009, CCP Politburo Standing Committee member Li Changchun described Confucius Institutes as “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda setup.”
Academic freedom, censorship, and local influence
Federal scrutiny of Confucius Institutes has focused on allegations of censorship, intellectual property risks, and foreign influence over American academic life:
- Self-Censorship and Curriculum Control: A 2017 study by the National Association of Scholars found that contracts between host universities and Confucius Institutes were often kept secret, that schools received financial incentives to avoid criticizing Beijing, and that teaching materials omitted sensitive topics, including human rights abuses.
- Direct Pressure on Host Schools: In 2018, a keynote speaker at Savannah State University had a reference to Taiwan removed from her biography at the explicit request of the university’s Confucius Institute co-director.
- Impact on Public Discourse: A 2019 study by researchers from University College Dublin, cited in the State Department’s review, found that establishing a Confucius Institute produced a statistically significant pro-Beijing shift in local media coverage.
- Faculty Integrity Warnings: As early as 2014, the American Association of University Professors warned that the institutes advanced Beijing’s political agenda and compromised the integrity and independence of higher education.
At the height of federal scrutiny in mid-2020, 75 Confucius Institutes operated in the United States—65 directly on university campuses—alongside roughly 500 affiliated Confucius Classrooms in K-12 districts. Following the State Department’s foreign-mission designation, dozens of American colleges closed their institutes, reflecting similar shutdowns and regulatory mandates in Sweden, Germany, and India.