Leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are urging seven U.S. universities to end the China Scholarship Council – what lawmakers call a "nefarious mechanism" to steal technology for the Chinese government.
The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at U.S. universities. After graduating, they are required to return to China for two years.
Gordon Chang, an Asian policy analyst, points out that China has been an integral part of the rising Red-Green Alliance.
"We know that China has fueled a lot of the antisemitic sentiments on American campuses," he notes. "They do that through TikTok; 96.5% of them support the terrorist group, so we can understand why we have seen this surge of antisemitism throughout our country. China is fueling it, and clearly what we need to do is put a stop to that."
In their letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame, and five other universities, he says the Republican lawmakers correctly describe this scholarship program as a national threat.
"We should not allow the Chinese central government or the Communist Party to fund institutions of higher learning – or secondary or primary schools," he submits. "We should just get them out of our educational system, full stop."
Secretary of State Marcio Rubio announced May 28 that visas granted to Chinese students would be revoked if the students had ties to the Chinese Communist Party or if they were involved in fields of study that could exploited by the CCP, but last month, the U.S. State Department resumed accepting new student visas, with a new requirement.
Concerns have also been raised about the controversial Confucius Institutes, which the Chinese government is believed to be using to influence and restrict academic freedom. These institutes offer language and cultural programs, but critics argue they may serve as a tool for Beijing's propaganda and censorship.
Knowing that the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese central government use Chinese students to obtain information illicitly from the United States, Chang does not see why effective measures have not already been taken.
