The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Tuesday, September 10, 2024

For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has worked to spread propaganda and conduct sophisticated espionage around the world, particularly targeting the United States and seeking to infiltrate and exploit America’s classrooms and institutions of higher learning.

One way the Chinese government attempted to do this was to establish Confucius Institutes (CIs) in the U.S. under the guise of promoting Chinese language and culture and advancing cultural exchanges. In reality, these CIs were extensions of the CCP’s influence network meant to conduct espionage in the U.S., impact academic institutions’ decisions, push propaganda, and steal intellectual property and trade secrets.

Today, there are less than five active Confucius Institutes left in the United States; however, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 43 out of 74 schools surveyed maintain a relationship with an entity that previously supported their CI program. 

Additionally, many institutions of higher learning are far from transparent in disclosing the assistance they receive from China or other foreign engagement, posing a significant risk to our national security and allowing our adversaries to influence the classrooms that shape the minds of America’s brightest.

Between June 22, 2020, to April 6, 2023, the Department of Education accumulated data revealing that U.S. universities collected over $3 billion from CCP and PRC linked entities. And because of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, any individual, organization, institution, or entity based in China is obligated to assist and comply with PRC intelligence work. 

H.R. 1516, the DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, restricts funding to American institutions of higher education (IHE) that maintain a relationship with a Chinese entity of concern or Confucius Institute, making them ineligible to receive any funds from the Department of Homeland Security.

We cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence U.S. education and participate in shaping the minds of America's future leaders, nor can we allow them access to steal intellectual property.