(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – American universities have been engaging in financial agreements with Communist China that exceed $2.3 billion over the last ten years, raising alarm about Beijing’s influence in US higher education, according to a report.
This comes amidst ongoing apprehensions regarding the influence of China’s communist regime on the educational landscape in the United States.
This finding was revealed through an investigative effort by The Wall Street Journal, cited by The College Fix.
Contracts between US institutions and China have encompassed a wide array of initiatives.
These include agricultural studies focused on orange crops, professional development programs for airline pilots, and clinical trials for cancer treatment medications produced by a Chinese pharmaceutical entity.
The investigation disclosed the existence of roughly 2,900 agreements from 2012 to 2024, linking Chinese companies with approximately 200 public colleges and universities across the United States, covering all fifty states.
Among these contracts, specific ones highlighted include deals worth $37 million between Chinese airlines and the University of North Dakota. These were for the purpose of training and certifying pilots.
Additionally, contracts amounting to $1.8 million with China’s Institute of Navel Orange at Gannan Normal University and the University of Florida were aimed at exploring tree genetics and illnesses affecting citrus fruits.
However, some agreements were noted for their vagueness.
For instance, it was found that “all three of China’s major government-owned oil companies have funded contracts for $100,000 or more at the University of Texas at Austin, which the school describes only as’ research activity.’”
“Some of the biggest-value China contracts feature franchise-type arrangements for overseas satellite campuses. New York University, which the Education Department database shows has been the largest single recipient of Chinese funding, reported two contracts totaling over $46.5 million for 2021 alone for its Shanghai branch. The Juilliard School has disclosed over $133 million in such funding over more than a decade for its Tianjin Juilliard School near Beijing, appointed with some 120 Steinway pianos,” the report reveals.
These financial relationships have stirred concerns among US politicians, scholars, and students, given the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged involvement in various human rights violations, ranging from censorship and forced labor to torture and genocide against the Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies warn that China’s state has encouraged theft of technological secrets at universities, spread pro-Beijing propaganda, stifled campus debate and harassed students. Beijing dismisses such characterizations. Its officials say ethnic Chinese students and professors have been unfairly targeted in the US, including on American campuses, and urged the US to be mindful of its reputation for academic freedom,” the investigation has concluded.
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