Former head of Chinese state-funded Confucius Institute lands top US university job as Defence Secretary Hegseth warns of 'propaganda cells'

Huajing Maske, former director of the University of Kentucky's Confucius Institute — a Chinese state-funded programme — has taken a senior role at a major US university, raising alarm among national security hawks. The appointment comes as Pete Hegseth warns that Chinese 'propaganda cells' are actively working to 'infiltrate the minds of American students' on college campuses.

Confucius Institutes were widely condemned as vehicles for Chinese Communist Party influence before many US universities shuttered them under congressional pressure.

Hegseth has separately been accused by critics of endangering human rights workers after a Pentagon official was said to have spread what they called a 'venomous lie' linking NGOs to cartels.

One prominent commentator named Hegseth the worst pick in what he called a 'historically awful cabinet' — a distinction facing stiff competition.