America’s students deserve better than to be treated as pawns in the Chinese Communist Party’s long game to undermine our country.
We can all agree that China does not have the best interests of American students in mind. Yet, thanks to lax enforcement and misplaced priorities from the Biden-Harris administration, billions of dollars have flowed anonymously from our adversaries into American colleges and universities.
President Donald Trump and Republicans are charting a different course for higher education. We are delivering on our promise to put American students—not foreign interests—first.
The Chinese Communist Party has a proven record of stealing intellectual property and infiltrating key American institutions, particularly in fields like defense and medicine. When $2.32 billion from the party finds its way into our universities, it’s not generosity—it’s a threat. As the saying goes, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
But it’s not just research theft at stake. The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, of which I am a member, has underscored the grave threat of foreign influence on college campuses for years.
China seeks to win over the hearts and minds of the next generation, using its financial influence to censor dissent and promote propaganda on American campuses. Whether through secret police stations that mysteriously popped up in New York City or the censorship operations of campus Confucius Institutes, Beijing’s ambitions are clear: to undermine American sovereignty and erode freedom of thought.
While public outrage forced many Confucius Institutes to “close,” the rot remains. Congressional investigations have uncovered nearly $40 million in unreported contracts with Chinese Communist Party-tied entities at just two universities.
Our schools should be bastions of free inquiry, not beachheads for hostile foreign regimes. Unfortunately, our adversaries are exploiting colleges and unraveling our sacred First Amendment rights—and American schools are complying to keep the cash coming.
Under current law—Section 117 of the Higher Education Act—universities are required to disclose large foreign gifts. But former President Joe Biden’s Department of Education refused to hold universities responsible for compliance and allowed billions in secret foreign donations to continue flowing.
Biden’s cover-up is especially egregious considering that the first Trump administration vigorously enforced the reporting requirements of Section 117 and discovered that colleges were hiding over $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funding between 2019 and 2021. Outside experts say billions in previously undisclosed foreign funds to universities even helped fuel antisemitism on college campuses.
Even worse, the Biden-Harris administration shuffled enforcement responsibility to an already overburdened office and shut down critical Trump-era investigations. Reports estimate that during this lapse, another billion dollars poured into our schools from undisclosed foreign sources.
Thankfully, Trump has reversed course, reopening investigations, including one into hundreds of millions of dollars in secret donations to the University of California, Berkeley.
Trump is taking the threat of foreign funding seriously during his first 100 days in office, and I stand firmly with him. We must defend the integrity of our colleges and protect the hearts and minds of our young people. Our students should be learning how to think freely and boldly—not being indoctrinated by the propaganda of hostile foreign powers.
This fight is about the future of our country. America’s adversaries see our students as soft targets—we must prove them wrong. Ignoring this serious threat abandons the hearts and minds of our next generation of leaders.
By securing our campuses and shutting down foreign influence, we can keep America’s future bright and free. Let’s put students first—not our adversaries.
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