Scholars with ties to the Chinese Communist Party received U.S. taxpayer dollars, report finds

Several federal agencies in Washington, D.C., have handed out important grants to individuals involved in certain programs run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

The Daily Caller discovered 50 scholars in American universities and other research institutions currently receiving taxpayer dollars who are also involved in the CCP’s talent recruitment programs. 

[RELATED: Columbia hosts Hong Kong billionaire with deep ties to CCP] 

The FBI warns that such “talent recruitment plans” run by the CCP motivate those involved to “steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” the Daily Caller noted. 

One of the programs in question is the “Thousand Talents Plan,” which national security expert Brandon Weichert told the Daily Caller is an “overt program of industrial espionage directed against the U.S. . . . They seek to co-opt our scientists to their cause.”

Worries about the CCP’s influence in American higher education have been growing in recent years. 

The Manhattan Institute, for example, released on Dec. 3 “Model Legislation to Track Foreign Funds to American Universities,” which, among other nations, focuses on China and its influence on American campuses. 

[RELATED: Chinese student who voted in 2024 elections remains on Michigan voter rolls: REPORT] 

Recently introduced legislation in Texas’s state legislature would also mandate that “an institution of higher education may not solicit or accept a gift, grant, or donation from” China, among other nations. 

It was also recently discovered that Energy Foundation China, a group run by former CCP officials, poured $630,000 into several American colleges and universities to promote an anti-fossil fuel agenda.