U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
Dozens of Chinese influence operations funded by its Communist Party in American universities have been declared a national security threat by the Department of War.
The organizations are called Confucius Institutes, according to the announcement by Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“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; and never again,” Hegseth said.
A report at the Federalist previously had described the institutes as “public educational and cultural promotion programs” that get cash from the Chinese International Education Foundation.” That was described as “a shady organization affiliated with the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP.”
The report confirmed, “While billing themselves as centers of cultural exchange on U.S. college campuses, these institutes have been scrutinized as front groups seeking to advance CCP propaganda and espionage efforts.”
Congress previously moved to shutter those centers but Hegseth said they “came back disguised in new forms.”
He has called them “Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs.”
Hegseth said some 80 new “propaganda cells” across dozens of universities recently had appeared, “using different names and different charters but with the same mission: to steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students.”
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
