Legislation aimed at cutting taxpayer funding to universities with ties to the Chinese Communist Party is gaining traction on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers raise concerns about espionage and national security risks linked to Chinese influence on U.S. campuses.
“We have to make sure that our largest geopolitical adversary, the Chinese Communist Party, isn’t infiltrating at will our research institutions and our institutions of higher learning,” Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told Fox News on Monday.
Fallon’s remarks come after the Justice Department charged three Chinese international students in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the United States and for making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
Meanwhile, The College Fix reported that 64 U.S. colleges continue to maintain Confucius Institutes—programs linked to the CCP—despite efforts during President Donald Trump’s second term to shut them down.
In response, Fallon introduced the Espionage Prevention Act, which would cut taxpayer funding to universities that maintain “contractual or in kind relationships with certain covered entities like the Confucius Institutes or the Thousand Talents Program and others that have CCP affiliations.”
“The legislation is long overdue,” Fallon said. “What the bill does is it’s going to modify the National Security Act of 1947 to essentially ban the IC community, which is 18 different intelligence community agencies, from funding universities that have CCP ties.”
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Fallon cited two primary concerns driving the legislation.
“Mainly the two folds are the main concerns, one of which is that American citizens and or professors at these institutions would be compromised and would be doing highly sensitive research and the Chinese Communist Party could benefit from that illegally,” he said.
“Another concern would be that Chinese students over here—and there have been instances of this, of course—where they have been using either trained assets for the Chinese Communist Party, or they’re sympathetic and at their direction or on spec are stealing highly sensitive research or, you know, biotechnology or etc., bringing it back to Beijing,” Fallon added.
In the Senate, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is advancing complementary legislation. The DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act would bar the Department of Homeland Security from awarding grants to universities affiliated with Confucius Institutes or other CCP-linked entities.
“We’ve seen the CCP use Confucius Institutes and other programs to infiltrate universities and colleges, collect valuable and sensitive information, spread propaganda, and recruit for its Military-Civil Fusion,” Scott said in a press release. “The United States and our higher education institutions cannot turn a blind eye while our adversaries use American research against us.”
A related measure, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, passed the House in May and now awaits Senate consideration.
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