Primary school students recite a Tang Dynasty (618–907) poem at the opening ceremony of the tenth annual National Chinese Language Conference in Houston, Texas, in April 2017. Photo: Xinhua.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Oct. 23 that the Pentagon had shut down 80 programs at 30 American universities. The programs replaced Confucius Institutes, the Chinese Communist Party-funded language and culture centers, under new names, often retaining the same Chinese partners.

Some schools and nonprofits concealed those ties. The University of Michigan and Arizona State University altered records to make continued Chinese funding anonymous, according to the National Association of Scholars.

Until at least September 2025, ILTexas Global, which coordinated Confucius Classrooms in Texas schools, described itself online as an intermediary between China’s Ministry of Education and school districts. It removed that wording after the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, filed a Texas public records request for its Confucius Classroom documents.

Chicago Public Schools records list the Confucius Institute of Chicago as the source of more than $290,000 in fiscal 2026 grants, despite its reported closure in 2020, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ October study. Jane Lu simultaneously headed the institute and the district’s Chinese World Language Program, which appears to have absorbed the institute’s K–12 work.

The foundation’s report also identified the Center for Bridging Cultures, a nonprofit that made grants to public schools and invited district leaders on trips to China. Its director, Gao Qing, previously headed the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, which the State Department called the de facto headquarters of the Confucius Institute Network. Beijing Language and Culture University lists the center among its global institutes, alongside dozens that carry the Confucius name.

The first U.S. Confucius Institute opened at the University of Maryland in November 2004 in partnership with Nankai University. Hanban, an agency tied to China’s Ministry of Education, supplied start-up funding, instructors and textbooks, and paired each host university with a Chinese counterpart.

A bipartisan 2019 Senate report concluded that Beijing “controls nearly every aspect” of the institutes, using veto power over speakers and events to suppress campus criticism of China. U.S. officials also accused the institutes of spreading Beijing’s propaganda and facilitating espionage and intellectual property theft.

Congress began restricting Pentagon funding in 2018, cutting off money for Chinese language programs at universities hosting Confucius Institutes. The fiscal 2021 defense authorization act expanded the restriction to all Pentagon funding for host universities without a waiver, regardless of the program’s name. By late 2023, the Government Accountability Office counted fewer than five institutes at U.S. universities, down from about 100.

Beijing reorganized the network in 2020. That June, 27 Chinese universities, companies and social organizations founded the Chinese International Education Foundation to oversee the institutes. Founders included Beijing Normal University, Beijing Language and Culture University and Nankai University. Registered with China’s Civil Affairs Ministry, the foundation is described by the Congressional Research Service as a nongovernmental charity sponsored by China’s Ministry of Education and composed of universities and corporations.

In July 2020, the ministry renamed Hanban the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. The center retained Chinese proficiency testing, teaching materials and the “Chinese Bridge” program, while the foundation assumed funding and oversight of the remaining institutes and many replacement language programs. The global network then comprised 541 institutes and 1,170 Confucius Classrooms in 162 countries. Analysts quoted by China’s state-run Global Times said the restructuring would counter the Western view of the organization as China’s “ideological marketing machine.”

At least 64 of the 104 colleges and universities that closed their institutes opened similar programs under new names or maintained close ties with former Chinese sponsors, the scholars’ association found. Institute employees moved into successor programs, and some textbooks remained on campus. A 2023 GAO survey found that 43 of 74 schools that closed an institute retained ties with their Chinese partner. Nine still received support, though eight schools said their partnerships predated the institutes.

The College of William and Mary closed its Confucius Institute on June 30, 2021, then launched a partnership with the same Chinese partner, Beijing Normal University, the next day. The W&M-BNU Collaborative Partnership remains active, offering summer and winter study abroad, visiting student programs and cultural exchanges.

In December 2021, Binghamton University established the Center for Theater Arts Collaboration with its former institute partner, the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. The academy’s president, vice president, four department chairs and international exchange director serve on the center’s advisory board. An academy professor also teaches Beijing opera at Binghamton as a visiting professor.

The University of Washington’s Confucius Institute, established under a 2009 Hanban agreement, moved to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma in 2020. It retained the Confucius name until its closure in summer 2026. Its Chinese partners were Sichuan University and Chongqing Jiaotong University, while Seattle Public Schools ran its K–12 education center. In 2022, Sichuan University reported that the institute served about 30 elementary and middle schools across eight districts.

Western Kentucky University announced its institute’s closure on April 22, 2019. Within two months, the program moved to the Simpson County school district under a five-year agreement with Hanban and its existing Chinese partner, North China Electric Power University. Renamed the Confucius Institute of Western Kentucky, it served 47 K–12 schools across more than a dozen counties. BG Education Management Solutions, a nonprofit founded by former institute director Terrill Martin, operated it from July 2019 to June 2024. The National Academies excluded institutes hosted by school districts from its 2023 list of open institutes.

At the program’s peak in 2017, China supported Confucius Classrooms in 501 American schools. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ October study found that BG Education Management Solutions maintained its partnership with North China Electric Power University.

Other Chinese-funded exchanges have expanded. The Young Envoys Scholarship, launched in 2024 and run by the China Education Association for International Exchange, drew participants from about 83 universities and 27 K–12 schools, according to an August 2026 report by Defending Education, a parents’ advocacy group. In 2026, American Heritage Schools sent 31 students and faculty to China through the program, with the Chinese association covering most travel costs.

The Pentagon’s funding restrictions apply only to host higher education institutions, leaving K–12 programs outside the ban.

The post How Schools Hid Chinese Communist Party Ties After Hegseth Shut Down 80 Rebranded Confucius Institute Programs appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.