US Defense Department Labels China-Funded Confucius Institutes a Security Threat

The US Department of Defense has classified China-funded Confucius cultural institutes as a national security threat, accusing them of operating as fronts for propaganda and intellectual property theft.

The department announced that it had dismantled what it described as 80 new propaganda cells across 30 universities. It said the groups had operated under disguised names.

According to the department’s account, the concealed identities were used to facilitate the theft of intellectual property. The allegations place the institutes’ activities within a national security framework rather than treating them solely as cultural initiatives.

The announcement did not identify the universities involved or detail the intellectual property allegedly targeted. The information provided also contained no response from China or the institutes to the accusations.