Many of America’s universities have proven eager to take money from communist China for “partnership” arrangements. A new bill aims to put an end to that by making them choose between ChiCom money and federal funding.
Republican U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas has introduced legislation that would prohibit federal funding for higher education institutions that partner with the Chinese Communist Party.
H.R. 9123 would “establish intelligence community funding restrictions on institutions of higher education that have a relationship with certain entities in the People’s Republic of China.”
The legislation amends the National Security Act of 1947 to prohibit intelligence community support for any higher education institution that participates in a series of relationships with entities tied to China.
This would seem a common sense policy implemented that should have been implemented long before now. Communist China is always looking to steal technology from the West through its “Thousand Talents” espionage program, and Chinese nationals have been stealing technology from American universities (including Texas A&M) for a while now.
Examples of these entities include:
Confucius institutes Institutions that participate “in the Chinese defense industrial base” Institutions that are “affiliated with the Chinese State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for the National Defense” Institutions that receive “funding from any organization subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party” Institutions that provide “support to any security, defense, police, or intelligence organization of the Government of the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party” The legislation also places restrictions on partnerships that undermine America’s relationship with Taiwan and on Chinese propaganda efforts against U.S. citizens.
This is a good first step, but we should go further and ban Chinese nationals from holding any position at any U.S. research university, laboratory or institute that takes federal money.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan, you have to serve somebody, and it shouldn’t be communist China. As I’ve said before, anything that discourages colleges and universities from working with a genocidal communist dictatorship is a good thing.
Tags: Adam Cahn, China, college, Communism, Confucius Institutes, education, National Security Act of 1947, Pat Fallon, subsidies, Taiwan, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Scorecard