Follow-Up: China Opposes U.S. Stigmatisation of Confucius Institutes: Guo Jiakun Calls Educational Exchanges Mutually Beneficial as Xinhua Slams Security Label
China opposes the U.S. 'smearing and stigmatisation' of Confucius Institutes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing on October 26, responding to the U.S. Defense Department's designation of the institutes as a threat to U.S. national security, Reuters reported. Educational exchanges between China and the U.S. are mutually beneficial and help deepen mutual understanding, Guo said. The Pentagon made the designation on Friday, October 23, covering the Chinese-funded cultural centres on U.S. university campuses.
On the U.S. side, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth alleged on Friday that Confucius Institutes were operating in disguise at U.S. universities and that the Pentagon had added them to its list of institutions that threaten U.S. national security. '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,' Hegseth said, adding that the Defense Department had over the past two months 'systematically dismantled every single one of these organizations.' GSM reported the Pentagon designation on October 23.
China's official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that the national-security-threat label was 'an absurd overreach, exposing some U.S. politicians' warped threat perceptions and their dangerous political calculus of stoking anti-China sentiment ahead of the midterm elections.' Reuters noted that Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese propaganda tools and has taken steps to crack down on them. The Foreign Ministry statement is Beijing's formal response to the Pentagon's latest designation; both sides' positions are presented above.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于阿拉巴马州 Troy 的 Troy University 校园内的孔子学院大楼与孔子像（资料图）。摄影：Kreeder13，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Confucius Institute building and a bust of Confucius on the Troy University campus in Troy, Alabama (file photo). Photo: Kreeder13, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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