China is ‘inside every major American university,’ former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that “the Chinese Communist Party’s inside every major American university today with research dollars and with their students.”

“They’re at the University of Pennsylvania, too,” he continued. “And we now know that this Chinese money, these Chinese officials met classified documents in that space.” 

[RELATED: WATCH: Prof. Giordano says ‘the timing’ of Penn Biden Center docs ‘is suspicious’]

Pompeo said that he “never gave an inch” as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Secretary of State under former President Donald Trump. The Biden administration, Campus Reform has reported, is reducing scrutiny of Chinese influence in American higher education. 

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Chairwoman of the Education and Workforce Committee, recently reopened investigations into foreign donations to colleges and universities. Foxx decided to continue these investigations after the Biden administration dropped them and as universities’ self-reported donations declined under his administration’s watch, according to National Review. 

One of the universities under investigation is the University of Pennsylvania. 

[RELATED: ANALYSIS: Biden Center scandal ignites interest in possible foreign influence at UPenn]

“I heard Sen. Cruz say this, and we need to know what’s in those documents, what the seriousness of them is, what potential breaches there are,” Pompeo told Fox News. “They were in the same place. We need to know if there’s any risk [Chinese officials] might have gotten a hold of them.”

Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow Nicholas Giordano described how Chinese money influences American universities in a Daily Wire op-ed. In one incident, a Harvard University department chair failed to disclose a salary from the Wuhan University of Technology in China, where he opened a lab. 

“Unfortunately, following the money reveals why universities are turning a blind eye: they’re addicted to the cash flow,” Giordano argued. “The reality is, foreign entities are using college campuses throughout the United States as vehicles to buy influence on and, ultimately, off campuses.”

Campus Reform contacted Pompeo, the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Biden Center, and the Department of State for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.