The former director of a Chinese government-backed Confucius Institute has landed a new role at a cultural center at another major American university – despite years of the Trump administration's efforts to stamp out Beijing's
influence on college campuses, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Huajing Maske previously served as the executive director of the University of Kentucky's Confucius Institute, a controversial China-funded educational program that spread across college campuses during the Obama years.
Maske is now the inaugural director of the Sands Institute for Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after being appointed to the role last fall.
Her appointment comes amid renewed scrutiny of Chinese influence in American higher education, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently warning that dozens of alleged Chinese propaganda outlets had resurfaced at universities under different names.
Hegseth last week claimed in a Department of War video that '80 new propaganda cells' had emerged across 30 universities using 'different names and different charters,' but with the same mission: 'to steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students.'
While UNLV has never operated a Confucius Institute, Maske's past ties to Beijing and her history at the helm of the University of Kentucky's program – where she received multiple awards at conferences attended by senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials – raise fresh questions about the links between such China-related educational organizations and US college campuses.
When pressed for comment about Friday's announcement, a UNLV spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the 'US Department of War has not contacted UNLV's Sands Institute for Chinese Language and Culture.'
'The Sands Institute was created through a $15 million gift by the Nevada based Las Vegas Sands Corporation,' the spokesperson added. 'The Institute has not received funding from China.'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently issued a warning about dozens of alleged Chinese propaganda operations resurfacing at American universities under different names, after the Trump administration pressured schools to cut ties with China-funded Confucius Institutes
Huajing Maske, who previously oversaw the University of Kentucky's controversial Confucius Institute, was appointed last fall to lead the Sands Institute for Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Confucius Institutes were created to promote Mandarin language instruction and Chinese cultural appreciation, hosting cultural events such as Lunar New Year celebrations and funding academic exchange trips between the US and China.
However, because the institutes were directly bankrolled by Beijing and integrated onto host university campuses, federal intelligence and defense officials warned that they functioned as state-sponsored influence arms.
Critics and lawmakers also pointed out that the programs restricted academic freedom by discouraging discussions on sensitive political topics, including Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen Square, while giving Chinese government-backed entities direct access to American student networks and faculty.
Such fears eventually led to a bipartisan pressure campaign from Congress and the first Trump administration for universities to shut down the institutes or face funding cuts in 2020.
'We need help of administrations all across America. We need trustees to police their endowments and the deals their universities are striking with the CCP and CCP-backed groups,' then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned at the time.
'We need administrators to close Confucius Institutes and investigate what so-called student groups backed by the CCP money are actually up to on their campuses. The government will help, but we need people to assist us.'
The University of Kentucky's Lexington campus closed its Confucius Institute in 2021. Of the 118 Confucius Institutes that reportedly existed at US colleges in 2017, none are still in existence, according to data compiled by the National Association of Scholars.
In a 2024 press release, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, promoted its new cultural center, touting the increasing importance of being able 'to understand and engage with Chinese citizens and culture' as Sin City expands as a global hub for tourism, business and hospitality.
While UNLV's Confucius Institute is relatively new, Maske's past ties to Beijing and her history at the helm of the University of Kentucky's program - where she received multiple awards at conferences attended by CCP officials - raises fresh questions
UNLV, where Maske is now leading the Sands Institute for Chinese Language and Culture, said the program is funded entirely through a $15 million donation and has received no funding from China (Source: Huajing Maske/LinkedIn)
'The Sands Institute will serve as a platform for robust community engagement, strengthening the cultural fabric of the region and enhancing its connections with China,' the statement read.
Earlier this year, Maske led a delegation to China that included a visit to the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) – a Beijing-based organization US lawmakers warned has concealed its ties to the CCP while promoting 'benign international educational exchanges.'
In a letter last year, the House Select Committee on China railed against CEAIE's charter, saying the organization adopts 'Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory … and Xi Jinping Thought … as the guiding ideology and action plan,' and 'integrates Party work into the complete operational and developmental process of the organization.'
In 2013, Maske was one of 15 Confucius Institute leaders to receive an 'Individual Performance Excellence Award' during an awards ceremony in Beijing.
The awards ceremony featured then-Vice Premier Liu Yandong, who served in multiple top CCP roles and previously oversaw the CCP's United Front, which aims to advance the CCP's interests with non-party members in the United States and other countries around the world.
'I feel very honored to receive this award, but most important, I feel that this is another great opportunity for [the University of Kentucky's] name to be known by the more than 2,000 attendees from higher education institutions around the world and in China,' Maske said in a 2013 press release.
In addition to the 2013 award, Maske joined the University of Kentucky's then-interim Provost Tim Tracy in 2012 to accept an award for Confucius Institute of the Year during the group's Beijing conference in December 2012, which featured keynote remarks from multiple CCP leaders including Xu Lin, who served as the chief executive of the Confucius Institute headquarters and was a member of the CCP's state council.
'This puts UK's name with the top 3 percent of the more than 430 universities in 115 countries,' Maske said at the time.
The Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, was home to the Confucius Institute before it closed in 2021 (Source: Wikipedia)
Earlier this year, Maske led a delegation to China that included a visit to the China Education Association for International Exchange, which has been criticized by US lawmakers (Source: Huajing Maske/LinkedIn)
'This means that UK's name is known to most of the 1.3 billion Chinese people who watch Chinese TV and who read the Chinese newspapers.
'What's more, we have been reported in the recent People's Daily overseas edition which means more people living outside China also read about us,' Maske boasted, referring to the CCP's official newspaper.
Maske also traveled to Xiamen in late 2014, marking at least her third trip in three years to China for another award for her Confucius Institute chapter.
As a result of Maske's Confucius Institute chapter receiving several awards between 2012 and 2014, the official China headquarters, which was under the control of multiple CCP leaders, donated at least $1.7 million in late 2015 for renovations to transform the chapter's space into its Global Model Confucius Institute.
The new home of the Confucius Institute opened up in late 2017 with a ceremony that included top university leaders from Shanghai University and Jilin University.
Jackie Deal, the president of a defense research firm and an advisor for State Armor, a top watchdog group that exposes CCP influence, pointed out that not only did Maske receive awards during her tenure at the University of Kentucky, but just last year she was appointed to a vice-president role for the World Chinese Language Teaching Society, whose supervisory body is the CCP's Ministry of Education.
The leadership team also includes multiple CCP officials, including its President Zhong Yinghua, who has been a CCP member since 1986 and has held multiple leadership roles.
Deal also highlighted how Maske received her undergraduate degree from the Beijing-based University of International Relations, which has been tied to several Ministry of State Security (MSS) operatives, including Christine Fang – aka 'Fang Fang,' the alleged Chinese spy with whom disgraced former-Rep. Eric Swalwell of California had a sexual relationship.
The Confucius Institute at Troy University, in Troy, Alabama, was shuttered in 2023 amid a crackdown on foreign funding (Source: Wikipedia)
Heather Zhang, an Orange County, California, realtor indicted earlier this month on charges of spying on the son of Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te in Seattle, is also an alum of the university.
Maske has not been accused of any wrongdoing or of being an MSS operative.
In between leading the University of Kentucky's Confucius Institute and becoming the executive director at UNLV's Chinese culture center, Maske also served as the assistant vice president of international partnerships at Wayne State University in Detroit.
There she played an integral role in helping create their Chinese-language website and participated in a 2023 trip where the school's delegation met with the CCP's secretary at Jiangsu University, who 'expressed his anticipation for further accelerating the declaration of cooperative educational institutions for both sides and promoting the cooperation between the two universities to a deeper level and a wider field,' according to the university's website.
A spokesperson for the Department of War told the Daily Mail that DOW doesn't 'have anything further to provide beyond the Secretary's video at this time.'
The Daily Mail reached out to both Maske and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, multiple times for comment but did not receive a response.
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