More than 100 U.S. universities have failed to disclose foreign donations from the Chinese government, meaning the Chinese Communist Party has a bigger influence on our nation’s colleges and universities than we know.
An analysis from The Washington Free Beacon found that the more than 100 universities that currently host or have hosted Confucius Institutes, which are programs developed by the Chinese government to teach American students about Chinese culture and the language.
“The Department of Education requires all credentialed universities to disclose foreign gifts of more than $250,000, but only about 30 percent of institutions with Confucius Institutes have disclosed their financial ties to Beijing, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of federal records,” the outlet reported.
The Free Beacon reached out to the 75 institutions that had Confucius Institutes but did not report funding from the Chinese government. Twenty-two institutions replied, many of them saying they didn’t need to report because they received less than $250,000 from the Chinese government. In one example, a spokesman from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville told the outlet that they didn’t have to report its 2019 foreign donations “because it received only $246,711.”
The outlet spoke to Rachelle Peterson, director of Policy at the National Association of Scholars, who said the lack of transparency from these universities was “alarming.” – READ MORE
