Wire reporting: (Reuters, via The Guardian)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon had designated Confucius Institutes — Chinese-funded language and cultural centers on university campuses — as a threat to U.S. national security^2,3.

In a social-media video cited by CNA and Arab News, Hegseth said programs he described as successors were using other names and charters at U.S. universities, and that Confucius Institutes had been added to a Pentagon list of institutions treated as national security threats^2,3. He said about 80 such programs had appeared at 30 universities and that the Defense Department had dismantled them over about two months^2,3.

Arab News tied the announcement to earlier U.S. action, including an August 2020 State Department designation of the Confucius Institute U.S. Center in Washington as a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China³. CNA and Arab News, citing Reuters, said the Chinese embassy in Washington had not immediately commented^2,3.

Independent retrieval of Reuters’ original page returned an access error. The Guardian also carried the Reuters dispatch^1,4.

Sources

1. (Reuters, via The Guardian)Pentagon designates China-backed campus cultural centers a threat to US national securityAlso (Reuters, via CNA)Oct 23, 9:21 PM
2. Arab NewsUS Defense Department designates China's Confucius Institutes a national security threatOct 23, 7:11 PM
3. ReutersPentagon designates Confucius Institutes a national security threatOct 23, 6:05 PM

Read the original at The Guardian ↗