The US on Thursday designated the Confucius Institute US Center (CIUS) as a foreign mission, calling it an “entity advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign” on American campuses and schools.
“The goal of these actions is simple: to ensure that American educators and school administrators can make informed choices about whether these CCP-backed programmes should be allowed to continue, and if so, in what fashion,” secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
As a “foreign mission,” CIUS will be subject to same administrative rules and restrictions that apply to the Chinese diplomatic missions on a reciprocal basis.
CIUSs, many of them based on college campuses, are a long-established Chinese-government funded programme dedicated to teaching Chinese language and culture in the US and other nations.
The Trump administration shut down the Chinese mission in Houston recently alleging it had become a den of spies.
The US had also designated several Chinese media outlets operating in the country as “foreign missions”.