The Education Department told House Republicans it is concerned about the threat posed by the Chinese government as part of an update on its sprawling investigation into foreign funding and influence on U.S. campuses.
Reed Rubinstein, the Education Department’s acting general counsel, responded to an early May letter from Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and the GOP’s ranking members on six other House committees with a five-page letter of his own this week, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner. Rubinstein provided new details about the agency’s investigation into foreign money at institutes of higher education, what it had unearthed, especially as it related to China, and what transparency roadblocks were being put up by schools.
“The Department shares Congress’s concerns regarding unreported and unregulated foreign direct investment into the U.S. higher education system, and the potential for foreign sources to use strategic investments to turn American college campuses into indoctrination platforms,” Rubinstein said. “Some IHE leaders are starting to acknowledge the threat of foreign academic espionage and have been working with federal law enforcement to address gaps in reporting and transparency. However, the evidence suggests massive investments of foreign money have bred dependency and distorted the decision making, mission, and values of too many institutions.”
The lawmakers wrote this month that they “seek a better understanding of the Department’s efforts to address unreported foreign direct investment into the U.S. higher education system” as part of the House Republican effort “to investigate the Chinese government’s propaganda and cover-up campaign surrounding this pandemic.”
Rubinstein said so far the Education Department’s inquiry triggered “catchup” reporting of more than $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds “primarily” from Chinese and Middle Eastern sources on campuses nationwide, and it has opened nine investigations of universities “with very extensive foreign ties.” These include Georgetown University, Texas A&M, Cornell University, Rutgers University, the University of Maryland, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Texas, with a focus on that school’s financial connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“The Department also shares Congress’s concerns regarding the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to research integrity, academic freedom, and American security,” Rubinstein said. “The multiple indictments of IHE professors for undisclosed financial and other ties with the government of China, the CCP, and CCP-controlled enterprises; … the rapid development of China’s naval, sea, and air power; its efforts to rupture our long-held alliances and important trading relationships with major states in the Far East; and China’s stated desire to deny the use of the Yellow, East China, and South China Seas to American air and naval forces each provide a compelling legislative purpose and justification for Congressional inquiry.”
Rubinstein added that “the danger posed to our national interest by undisclosed IHE foreign funding and lax federal enforcement is thoroughly nonpartisan in nature.”
The letter also argued that under Secretary Betsy DeVos the Education Department “is, for the first time, faithfully enforcing the law” and has “given teeth to the longstanding but generally disregarded directive” in Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which requires schools to disclose its gifts from and contracts with foreign governments and businesses.
But Rubinstein pointed to “the education industry’s disappointing and continuing disregard for its disclosure duties to the U.S. government and the American taxpayer” and argued that the department “has yet to receive critical information needed.” He said, “Certain institutions have yet to produce requested emails, metadata, and other information regarding business relationships with, and faculty funding from, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Russian foreign sources.” He also said, “IHE counsel has contacted the Department and claimed Freedom of Information Act exemptions and legal privileges to block record production to Congress.”
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, released a 109-page bipartisan report in November concluding foreign countries “seek to exploit America’s openness to advance their own national interests” and “the most aggressive of them has been China.” It found China used its Thousand Talents Program to exploit access to U.S. research labs and academic institutions.
Dr. Qing Wang, a professor of molecular genetics at the Cleveland Clinic, was arrested in May on charges of lying to investigators and wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in funding he received from the National Institutes of Health under false pretenses while hiding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program.
The arrest of Wang came days after the Justice Department announced the arrest of Simon Saw-Teong Ang, an Arkansas professor who received millions of dollars of grant research money from the U.S. government, including $500,000 from NASA, while he allegedly failed to disclose his extensive financial connections to China and participated in China’s Thousand Talents Program.
Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, a former Emory University professor and Chinese Thousand Talents Program participant, pleaded guilty in May to filing false tax returns after he worked overseas at Chinese universities and did not report any of his foreign income on his federal tax returns.
In January, the Justice Department announced Charles Lieber, the chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department, was charged with one count of “making a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement” about his connections to China’s Thousand Talents Program.
Beyond the letter, the Education Department also provided Congress with a briefing, in which a House GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that Rubinstein also warned about the oil-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, saying the Arab monarchy treats all donations to U.S. universities as “strategic” and “trade secrets” to keep amounts hidden. The aide also said Congress was told Qatar requires schools to sign contracts precluding the university from disclosing donations.
A GOP spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee told the Washington Examiner that “it’s clear from the department’s letter and briefing — as well as the colleges’ efforts to hide information from us — that this is a significant concern” and hopes that House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney of New York and other chairmen would join their effort “to get to the bottom” of foreign influence on campus.
“This is about transparency,” DeVos said earlier this year. “If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom.”
