China rejects US security threat label for Confucius Institutes
China’s foreign ministry says educational exchanges should continue after the Pentagon designated Confucius Institutes a national security threat.
China’s foreign ministry opposed the US Defense Department’s designation of Confucius Institutes as a national security threat at a briefing in Beijing on Monday, 26 October, according to Reuters reporting carried by The Straits Times. The response followed the Pentagon’s Friday designation of the Chinese-funded cultural centres on US university campuses, extending a dispute over their role in education and national security.
Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China opposed what it called US ‘smearing and stigmatisation’ of the institutes. He said educational exchanges between China and the United States were mutually beneficial and helped deepen understanding between their peoples. His comments came in response to a question about the designation.
Why the Pentagon targeted campus groups
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth alleged on Friday that 80 organisations across 30 universities had appeared under different names and charters but shared a mission to steal intellectual property and influence American students. He said the department had systematically dismantled the organisations over the preceding two months. Reuters reported his claims; the account did not establish that the groups had carried out those activities.
The designation follows earlier US restrictions. AFP, in a report carried by Hong Kong Free Press, said Washington has restricted funding for Confucius Institutes since 2025 and regards the centres as Chinese Communist Party propaganda tools. The new designation and Hegseth’s allegations were covered in an earlier NewsJaws report. Monday’s development was China’s formal response to that move.
How the dispute extends beyond US campuses
Confucius Institutes offer Chinese language lessons and cultural exchange programmes. AFP reported that China had established hundreds of them in more than 150 countries over two decades, citing the body that oversees them. Their reach makes the dispute relevant beyond the US campuses covered by the Pentagon’s designation.
AFP also reported that dozens of institutes had closed in France, Sweden, Australia and Canada following similar accusations of foreign interference. It did not attribute those closures to the new US designation. China’s official Xinhua news agency criticised the Pentagon’s move on Sunday, calling the security threat label an ‘absurd overreach’, Reuters reported.
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Sources and context
- China says it opposes US 'stigmatisation' of Confucius Institutes after Pentagon labels them security threatThe Straits Times, reporting by Reuters
- China condemns US designation of Confucius Institutes as threatHong Kong Free Press, reporting by Agence France-Presse (AFP)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.