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Top Republicans from seven different House committees have sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, asking for information about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) investment in American colleges and universities to advance its overseas interests and promote its propaganda. The letter also details the CCP’s efforts to suppress research into the origins of the CCP virus (Covid-19).Seven House Republicans, including Virginia Foxx, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Michael McCaul, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter on May 4: “Chinese efforts to silence academic research they disagree with are not new. China (CCP) has strategically invested in U.S. academia to attempt to steal confidential information and technology from U.S. companies, and even the U.S. government.
They also said in the letter, “For some time, we have been concerned about the potential for the Chinese government to use its strategic investments to turn American college campuses into indoctrination platforms for American students.” The lawmakers question whether the U.S. higher education institutions that receive federal funding should be allowed to receive funds from China, the CCP, or other affiliated organizations.
Ranking Member Jim Jordan said, “We cannot allow a dangerous communist regime to buy access to our institutions of higher education, plain and simple.
A spokesperson of the Department of Education (date) thanked lawmakers for their support, saying they looked forward to cooperating with Congress and federal agencies to ensure that colleges and universities comply with laws and regulations regarding receiving foreign funding.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, expressed her concern over universities failing to report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts and has launched investigations into multiple universities.
Resource The Education Department has investigated the University of Texas System regarding its involvement with the Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Wuhan, China, the most likely source of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the UT system reported 10 contracts with Huawei and 24 contracts with Chinese state-owned universities between 2014 and 2019, totaling nearly $13 million. In their letter, the House Republican lawmakers request that the Department of Education disclose relevant information before May 11.
