Representative Michelle Steel, a Republican from California, who represents an affluent area covering parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties, has pointed out that her constituents are acutely aware of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The CCP is a serious threat to America, and Representative Steel’s constituents are well aware of this. Every time I go out to Asian-American communities, they know exactly what the communists do, she said.
Foreign universities that receive funding from CCP and other hostile actors should register themselves as foreign agents, according to Representative Steel. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a U.S. law that requires public disclosure obligations on all persons and principals representing foreign interests. These universities should have to register under FARA, Steel said.
Many hostile agents spend hundreds of millions of dollars on U.S. universities annually, which is known as the black hole of influence due to the 70% noncompliance with laws surrounding reporting foreign gifts and the Department of Education’s (DOE) failure to enforce the law. It is important to bear in mind that the CCP is actively engaged in espionage efforts on American citizens across every industry, field, and institution, including our college campuses.
Representative Steel believes that China’s influence on American colleges and universities in the form of propaganda and espionage tools, like Confucius Institutes, is a significant concern. She explained that the Department of State labeled these institutes as entities advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms in 2020. Ivy League universities including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have reported receiving millions of dollars in foreign funding from China, which is a considerable concern.
One of Representative Steel’s concerns is China buying U.S. research and intellectual property at a lower rate after it was initially funded by taxpayer dollars. They’d rather steal the research information than developing their own technology, which is much cheaper and faster for them, she said.
There are still several aspects of China’s influence in U.S. colleges and universities, involving research and development, that may not yet be fully understood. A Department of Education preliminary investigation into foreign influence in higher education discovered that U.S. universities failed to report $1.3 billion in foreign funding within the previous seven years back in 2019.
Currently, Democrats subjecting schools to racial equity training claiming America is fundamentally racist and would-be radicals at the University of Texas enjoying support from CCP officials engenders outrage among the majority of Americans. Republicans like Steel seek to take back America’s college campuses from malign influences.
Representative Steel and other GOP representatives would like to see Section 114 of the Higher Education Act of 1964, which requires colleges to report funds from foreign countries exceeding $250,000 per year, amended to $5,000. She said it’s important to find out what the funding is used for and what China is getting in exchange for it. The universities should be investigated precisely.
The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda operations in the United States on U.S. campuses are part of a broader, long-term strategy to manipulate its international image. The CCP aims to alter the impression in the United States and around the world that China is a significant economic and security threat. Furthermore, this strategy aims to encourage complacency towards China’s pervasive, long-term initiatives against both government critics at home and businesses and academic institutions abroad. These foreign government propaganda and influence efforts are effectively a black hole, with up to 70% of all U.S. colleges and universities failing to comply with the law. Those that do report do so insufficiently.
Republican lawmakers aim to rein in the CCP’s reach into American colleges and universities by compelling them to register as foreign agents if they get funds from hostile or foreign actors. Representative Steel and like-minded representatives want the universities to disclose the exact usage of the funding and what China is taking in exchange for it.
Representative Steel’s constituents in California, which is home to many affluent areas, are all too aware of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. They fled from communism, she said. The CCP actively engages in efforts to spy on American citizens across every industry, field, and institution, including our college campuses, according to the representative. Primary to her concerns is China’s influence on colleges via Confucius Institutes, which she said were used as propaganda and espionage tools for the party.
It is a bipartisan Congress that has found that the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda activities on U.S. campuses were part of China’s larger, long-term strategy targeting foreign governments, critics, and businesses. Moreover, this strategy seeks to promote complacency towards China’s invasive, long-term activities. These foreign government propaganda and influence efforts are effectively a black hole because up to 70% of all U.S. colleges and universities fail to comply with the law, and even those that do so underreport. Hence, Republican lawmakers aim to draw the line and limit the spread of malign forces like the CCP in America’s colleges and universities.
One of the most significant concerns is that China is allegedly buying American research and intellectual property at lower rates after raising taxpayer funds to advance research. ‘Stealing is much cheaper and faster than they are doing their research,’ Representative Steel said.
As China continues to exert more control and influence over American colleges and universities, Representative Steel highlights that even her constituents fled communism due to a history of Chinese oppression. Furthermore, the CCP actively engages in efforts to spy on American citizens across all industries, fields, and institutions, and this includes college campuses.
The practical implication is that there are steps that must be taken to halt China’s spread in America’s colleges and universities. Republican lawmakers are taking the initiative to compel these institutions to register themselves as foreign agents, disclose the usage of these funds and what the CCP is taking in exchange for them, and to expose the underlying propaganda of entities like the Confucius Institutes in the interests of preserving the integrity of higher education in America.