On July 23, in a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized China, saying: “We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only to see the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] exploit our free and open society. China sent propagandists into our press conferences, our research centers, our high schools, our colleges, and even into our PTA [parent-teacher association] meetings.”
On Oct. 14, Pompeo and US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos sent a joint letter to state commissioners of education, saying that Confucius Classrooms — a subset of China’s Confucius Institutes — are a government influence operation masquerading as a cultural and language organization, and that they should not be allowed in the US’ educational system.
