Confucius Institutes, seen as China’s answer to Germany’s Goethe-Institut and the British Council, offer language classes and cultural exchange programmes. (File pic)BEIJING: China accused the US on Monday of "targeted smearing" over Washington's designation of Beijing-funded Confucius Institute cultural centres as national security threats.
Washington considers the centres on American university campuses as propaganda tools of the Chinese Communist Party and has imposed funding restrictions on the institutes since 2025.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday his department had dismantled dozens of similar organisations over two months that had reappeared in disguise, "using different names... but with the same mission" and deemed them a threat to national security.
