All Beijing-Run Confucius Institutes in the US Could Be Shut Down by Year-End: Pompeo

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to discuss the Trump administration’s FY 2021 budget request for the State Department in Washington on July 30, 2020. Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the possibility that all Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes (CI) on U.S. college campuses would be forced to shut down by the end of the year.

“I think that everyone’s coming to see the risk associated with them and the recruitment of spies and collaborators inside of those institutions,” Pompeo said on Sept. 1 during an interview with Fox Business Network.