House Republicans urge Biden to reconsider rule on CCP's Confucius Institutes
Campus Reform recently reported that President Biden quietly axed a policy that would force universities to reveal cooperation with the Confucius Institute.
House Republicans are asking Biden to reinstate the rule.
President Joe Biden quietly revoked a Trump-era rule that would compel universities to report cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party’s Confucius Institute.
Now, Republicans in Congress are asking for the rule’s reinstatement.
As Campus Reform reported on February 7, the rule would force primary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions to reveal all contracts and transactions with the Confucius Institute — an entity that, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is “funded by the PRC and part of the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence and propaganda apparatus.”
On February 17, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) penned a letter to Biden to express their concerns and urge the resubmission of the rule “without delay.”
“Addressing the generational threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a preeminent national security concern for the United States,” wrote the legislators. “We welcome your administration’s first steps towards acknowledging that the CCP threat ultimately derives from hostility to our core democratic values and attempts to legitimize its own authoritarian system, which is rooted in Marxist-Leninist doctrine.”
The four leading Republicans also wrote that the presence of a Confucius Institute chapter can “compromise academic freedom, impose contractual arrangements subject to CCP-made laws, censor information on behalf of the CCP, and cause conflicts of interest for school administrators.”
“The previous administration took action to bring to light the extent to which academic institutions enter into contracts, partnerships, or other financial arrangements with CIs,” they stated, adding that the “integrity of the U.S. academic system should be a priority, and we urge your administration to resubmit the rule as soon as possible.”
“We would likewise welcome engaging with your administration to forge bipartisan, whole-of-government solutions to CCP threats to U.S. education and research integrity,” the lawmakers concluded.
Campus Reform has reported extensively on the influence of the Confucius Institute — which the Trump administration deemed a “foreign mission” of the Chinese Communist Party — upon American higher education, as well as Democratic opposition to addressing the threat.
In one recent example, House Democrats blocked an amendment that would have defunded schools hosting a Confucius Institute chapter.
[RELATED: GOP lawmaker says Dems blocked efforts to combat CCP-funded Confucius Institutes]
Campus Reform reached out to the offices of Rep. McCarthy, Rep. Foxx, Rep. McCaul, and Rep. Katko; this article will be updated accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
