GOP senators join House colleagues in urging Biden to reinstate Confucius Institute rule

Members of the Senate are joining House Republicans in asking President Joe Biden to restore a rule about the Chinese government’s Confucius Institute.

As Campus Reform previously reported, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and three other Republicans sent a letter to Biden asking for the reinstatement of a rule that would force universities to reveal all contracts and transactions with the Confucius Institute. Former President Donald Trump attempted to enact the rule in the final days of his administration, but Biden quietly rescinded it in the days after he entered the White House, as Campus Reform reported.

[RELATED: House Republicans urge Biden to reconsider rule on CCP’s Confucius Institutes]

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote a similar letter to Biden expressing the need to oppose “propaganda efforts in the United States” in the interest of protecting students “by enforcing transparency.”

“We have significant concerns regarding the CCP’s nefarious actions and urge you to follow through on your commitments to advancing the interests of the American people as we collectively respond to the challenge that the CCP poses,” wrote the lawmakers. “We believe it is critically important to better understand and reduce the CCP’s influence on the American people, including through the Hanban, its propaganda arm that runs Confucius Institutes through the PRC Ministry of Education.”

The Senators cited a report from the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which states that “Confucius Institute funding comes with strings that can compromise academic freedom.” Chinese educators sign contracts with the Chinese government “pledging they will not damage the national interests of China.”

[RELATED: Biden chalks up China’s Uyghur genocide to different cultural ‘norms.’ Can he be trusted to keep CCP off college campuses?]

“Through Confucius Institutes, the Chinese government is attempting to change the impression in the United States and around the world that China is an economic and security threat,” reads the report. “Confucius Institutes’ soft power encourages complacency towards China’s pervasive, long-term initiatives against both government critics at home and businesses and academic institutions abroad.”

The senators, therefore, urged the president to “implement it, or a similar, rule, swiftly.”

Campus Reform reached out to Romney, Grassley, Portman, and Rubio for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft