New York, NY; September 17, 2024—Last Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed HR 1516 “to prevent funds from flowing to American universities that host a Confucius Institute or maintain a relationship with a Chinese entity of concern.” Titled the DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act, Congressman August Pfluger (R-TX) described the bill as “ensuring American dollars are not enabling foreign malign influence.”
“The National Association of Scholars (NAS) applauds the House’s passage of HR 1516 as a necessary step to safeguard America’s colleges and universities,” said Ian Oxnevad, NAS Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies. “China and other hostile powers have used the US higher education system to obtain dual-use technologies and gain influence through soft-power strategies and amenable policymakers.”
The House version of the bill comprehends the nature of the threat that Beijing poses by defining a “Chinese entity of concern” as “any university or college in the People’s Republic of China that is involved with military-civil fusion, participates in the Chinese industrial base, receives funding from any organization subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, or provides support to any security, defense, police, or intelligence organization of the Government of the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party.”
The National Association of Scholars was the first organization to comprehensively research China’s relationship with American universities and Confucius Institutes in 2017. Later reports documented China’s expansion into K-12 education and the rebranding of Confucius Institutes to avoid scrutiny. The NAS has encouraged lawmakers to either broaden the definition of Confucius Institute or propagate a new term to encompass China’s soft-power cultural programs. HR 1516 expands the definition of “Confucius Institute” to include “a cultural institute funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”
“The threat of China’s influence is multifaceted and includes the risk of theft of technology through fundamental structural partnerships like that at New York’s Alfred University or what was just condemned at Georgia Tech. That Congress is linking these threats is a welcome change,” added Oxnevad.
Upon the bill’s passage, House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that the legislation is “critical to protecting students against China and its proxies.”
“It is a shame that the Chinese Communist Party has defamed the good name of Confucius. No longer is his name associated with a resurgence of philosophy, virtue, and intellectual diversity, but instead with subversion and theft. NAS calls on the Senate to take up the bill, build on its strengths, and pass it as soon as possible,” concluded Oxnevad.
NAS is a network of scholars and citizens united by a commitment to academic freedom, disinterested scholarship, and excellence in American higher education. Membership in NAS is open to all who share a commitment to these broad principles. NAS publishes a journal and has state and regional affiliates. Visit NAS at www.nas.org.
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For more information about this topic, please contact Chance Layton at [email protected].
Photo by United States House of Representatives or Office of the Speaker of the House - speaker.gov and Speak Paul Ryan on Facebook (direct link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57398786
