Hegseth: Pentagon Shut Down 80 Rebranded Confucius Institute Groups

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon has dismantled 80 Chinese government-backed organizations operating at 30 American universities, groups he described as rebranded successors to the Confucius Institutes that Congress moved to restrict years ago.

“The War Department has designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to our national security,” Hegseth said in a post on X, which carried a video statement laying out the action, according to the Washington Examiner.

The War Department has designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to our national security. pic.twitter.com/bvMTUBwGei

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 23, 2026

In the video, Hegseth said the programs had not gone away after Washington cracked down on them, but had instead resurfaced in disguise. “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,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian and Al Jazeera.

Hegseth said the department spent the past two months working through the list and had “systematically dismantled every single one of these organizations,” according to The Guardian. The Washington Examiner reported that Hegseth called the groups “sleeper organizations” and “Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs.”

The Pentagon also added the Confucius Institutes to its list of institutions that threaten U.S. national security, according to Al Jazeera, which cited AFP and Reuters reporting.

What the Pentagon did not say

Hegseth did not name the 30 universities or identify the 80 organizations, according to the Washington Examiner and American Resolve. He also did not detail what legal tools the department used to shut the groups down. Daily Beltway has not independently confirmed which campuses were involved.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a Reuters request for comment, Al Jazeera reported.

A long fight over campus influence

Confucius Institutes are Chinese government-funded language and cultural centers that for years offered Mandarin classes and other programming at American colleges, according to American Resolve. Critics have long warned that they gave Beijing a foothold on campus to shape how students view China and to get close to valuable research.

Congress restricted federal funding for schools hosting the programs beginning in 2018, and nearly all of the original institutes closed afterward, according to the Government Accountability Office as cited by American Resolve. Washington has long accused the centers of serving as Chinese propaganda tools, The Guardian and CNA reported.

Hegseth’s message on Friday was that closing the original programs was not the end of the story. According to the Washington Examiner, he said similar organizations kept emerging under new names after Congress acted, which is why the department moved to treat them as a national security matter rather than an academic one.

He also issued a warning beyond China. Hegseth cautioned foreign governments against stealing American inventions or turning young Americans against their own country, and he urged universities to stay watchful so the groups do not return, according to American Resolve.

Why it matters

The announcement lands as the administration presses a broader confrontation with Beijing over technology and research security. For parents and taxpayers who fund American universities, the core question Hegseth raised is a simple one: whether foreign governments were using campus programs to get access to students and research that American taxpayers paid for.

The Pentagon has not said whether any of the schools involved will face penalties, or whether any individuals connected to the 80 organizations are under investigation. Daily Beltway will update this story if the department releases the names of the universities or further details.

Sources

• Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on X: https://x.com/SecWar/status/2113746559527727121
• Washington Examiner: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense/4778256/hegseth-dismantling-china-organizations-universities/
• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/23/pentagon-china-hegseth
• Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/24/pentagon-designates-confucius-institutes-a-national-security-threat
• CNA: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/pentagon-designates-china-funded-confucius-institutes-us-national-security-threat-6488301
• American Resolve: https://www.americanresolvenews.com/articles/story-b328c58a23257a2a09d4.html

Reporting by Daily Beltway.