US Defense Dept designates Confucius Institute as security threat

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the US Defense Department has designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security,

PETE HEGSETH: "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."

Headquartered in Bejing, Confucius Institutes are Chinese-funded non-profit cultural centers on university campuses that aim to promote the Chinese language as well as cultural and education exchange. Beijing earlier slams some in the US for interfering the normal operations of Confucius Institutes and other collaboration between China and the US because of their ideological bias and personal interests.