Claiming that the programs were not benefiting Americans and were simply opportunities to boost Chinese Communist propaganda, the Trump Administration abruptly canceled five cultural exchange programs with the Chinese government, CBS News reports.

The cancelation of the programs is the latest turn in a fight the Trump Administration continues against the Chinese government, even as the administration is slated to leave office in a matter of weeks.

In a statement released Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the programs were “soft power propaganda tools” giving the Chinese government the ability to choreograph “carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly.”

The programs canceled were the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

These programs allowed US officials to meet with Chinese citizens, business leaders, educators and artists in a cultural exchange to improve relations and practices.

The Trump Administration, however, has taken a series of steps to punish Chinese officials who have not acquiesced to Trump trade demands, including the extreme act of cutting the length of visas to the US for Communist Party officials from ten years to one month.  Trump officials have called China an active enemy of the United States.

“We need to recognize China for the threat that they are. It’s the greatest threat that this country has faced since World War II. It’s our greatest challenge,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said. “Every generation has a challenge — Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain. This generation’s challenge is China’s intent to replace the United States as the world’s superpower.”