Pentagon designates China-backed campus cultural centers a threat to US national security
Pete Hegseth alleges Confucius Institutes operating in disguise on US university campuses
The US defense department has designated Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses known as Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.
Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese propaganda tools and has taken steps to crack down on them.
Hegseth, in a video posted on social media, alleged that Confucius Institutes were operating under disguise at US universities and that the Pentagon had added them to its list of institutions that threaten US national security.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/23/pentagon-china-hegsethOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
5 replies
Welp, I don’t think they are a very serious national security issue, but I was saddened when my neighbour, who was a very nice and diligent PhD student, didn’t feel free to criticise the Chinese government when we brought it up quite innocently. It was kind of a shock as he was erudite and even-handed in every other way. And I was clearly not a party apparatchik. Very odd.
What does have to do with the cultural centers? Where your friend part of it or something?
They still have a hate boner for China (since 2016 I'm always hearing this in Trump's voice. That's his lasting impact on global political discourse).
In this case they're probably right though; similar centers, not even necessarily connected to universities, have popped up everywhere and they're more than just espionage, their purpose is to cow people with chinese roots into submission. Can't find the multiple articles I read about this right now...
Submit to what? You misspelled "Israel".
Ohhh, you're a Chinese bot, not a Russian one, that's why you're so bad at this.