The Chinese Communist Party has donated more than $3 billion to U.S. universities over the last 30 years. But that’s the tip of the iceberg, experts say, because the U.S. Department of Education does not consistently enforce the law requiring U.S. schools to report foreign contributions exceeding $250,000.
Such contributions give the CCP and other foreign entities an entrée into American campuses where they conduct influence campaigns and steal intellectual property, some experts and lawmakers allege.
“These dollars come with strings attached, which are then used to leverage American faculty and students,” said Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), speaking at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, which he chairs.
“For example, foreign funds are used to set up state-backed cultural exchange centers that operate as cultural indoctrination centers. China, for instance, donates money to American universities to fund Confucius Institutes, renowned campus hubs known for pushing propaganda, like denial of the Tiananmen Square Massacre,” Mr. Owens said.
Those organizations also monitor and threaten Chinese international students in the United States if they criticize the CCP, Mr. Owens said.
Others urged caution in addressing the situation lest zeal for safeguarding American campuses produce a backlash against Asian Americans or hamper the ability of scholars to collaborate with international counterparts.
“We must ensure that colleges and universities are transparent about their ties to foreign entities,” said Ranking Member Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).
Mandatory Reporting
Federal law requires that U.S. colleges and universities receiving donations or contracts worth more than $250,000 from foreign entities report those transactions to the Department of Education twice a year.“Unfortunately, the department’s enforcement efforts have historically been very uneven,” Paul Moore, senior counsel at the Defense of Freedom Institute, told the subcommittee.
Mr. Moore cited a 2004 rule change enacted by the department that allows institutions to withhold the names of foreign donors, leading to a dramatic increase in foreign contributions originating from China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other countries.
An October 2020 report by the Department of Education revealed that heightened enforcement efforts had led to the disclosure of $6.5 billion in unreported foreign donations. The same stated that fewer than 300 of the approximately 6,000 institutions of higher education in the United States voluntarily report foreign contributions as required by law.
Difficulty in following the law is not the problem, according to Mr. Moore, who alleges that institutions have the data readily available but simply choose not to report it.
“Our investigations found that the universities had the information we wanted readily at hand, but they were extremely reluctant to provide it to us,” Mr. Moore said, referring to his work as chief investigative counsel at the Department of Education from 2020 to 2021.
“They were already very systematically tracking foreign contracts, foreign gifts, and of course, pursuing donors around the world with great vigor,” Mr. Moore said. “They could simply have made an effort to tap the information they were already collecting and producing, and provide that accurately to the department as required by Section 117.”
‘Whack-a-Mole’
Monitoring the influx of funds from known bad actors is complicated by their ability to disband one organization and funnel money through another.Craig Singleton, China program deputy director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies compared it to a game of whack-a-mole, in that when one problematic organization disappears, another pops up to take its place.
“In dozens of documented cases, U.S. universities that shuttered their [Confucius Institutes] chose to maintain, and in some cases expand, academic and sensitive research relationships with their Chinese sister universities,” Mr. Singleton testified.
Confucius Institutes (CIs) are government-sponsored organizations that promote a sanitized version of the CCP’s history and human rights abuses under the guise of teaching Chinese language, culture, and history, according to Mr. Singleton.
“In other cases, U.S. universities shuttered their brick-and-mortar CIs while embracing rebranded CI-like programs operating under other names. These ostensibly ‘new’ centers appear closely modeled on China’s CI model and, in some cases, even continue to receive funding from the same Chinese government agencies,” Mr. Singleton said.
“Regrettably, tracking these replacement programs has proven incredibly difficult.
Backlash Feared
While agreeing with the need for increased transparency into foreign investments in U.S. higher education, other subcommittee members and witnesses urged caution.Students and intellectuals come to the United States because they admire our university system and democratic government, John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said.
“Unfortunately, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and racist rhetoric used by political policymakers and officials at the highest level of our government fueled resurgent xenophobia against immigrants, especially of Chinese and Asian descent,” Mr. Yang said.
He urged lawmakers not to stoke bias against Asian immigrants as they enforce greater compliance with the law.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) noted that a number of foreign entities besides the CCP whose interests conflict with the United States also contribute to U.S. universities.
“I’m concerned about China’s authoritarianism, but I’m also concerned about authoritarianism in general,” Mr. Takano said.
“As an Asian American, I know what it feels like when one of the Asian ethnicities is singled out for scapegoating. And then there’s a generalized hatred that spreads [regarding] all Asian Americans.”
