The House of Representatives passed legislation targeting universities for maintaining partnerships with Chinese government-backed entities, including Confucius Institutes, in a bipartisan manner 266 to 153 on Wednesday afternoon.
Fifty-five House Democrats backed Texas Republican Rep. August Pfluger’s bill, which would restrict Department of Homeland Security funding to universities that have partnerships with “a Chinese entity of concern” or Confucius Institute, a Chinese government-backed organization. Lawmakers across both parties have accused Confucius Institutes of disseminating Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and conducting espionage at American universities.
“In no world should our adversaries have a taxpayer funded front-row seat in our university’s classrooms,” Pfluger told the DCNF. “Under the guise of promoting Chinese language and culture, Confucius Institutes have spent years propagandizing the future leaders of our country, stealing critical research, committing transnational repression, and much more. The passage of my legislation today is a huge victory for our national security and for the protection of the future generations of Americans.”
Confucius Institutes promote CCP propaganda and a positive image of China around the world under the pretext of advancing Chinese language and culture. Critics of the alleged Chinese influence hubs have also argued that the supposed educational organizations surveil Chinese dissidents and censor speech deemed unfavorable by the CCP.
The fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that President Trump vetoed in the final weeks of his first term prevented Department of Defense funding from going to universities that hosted Confucius Institutes.
Though more than 100 chapters were active in American universities and colleges in 2019, there were fewer than five Confucius Institutes still operating in the United States just four years later, according to an October 2023 Government Accountability Office report.
Foundation for Defense of Democracies China program senior director Craig Singleton told House lawmakers during a Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing in March that Confucius Institutes are an ongoing threat to the United States.
“They just rebranded and renamed themselves, and now they go by other names that are even harder to track,” Singleton told lawmakers in March. “[W]e have to be pretty concerned, I think, about free speech on campus, and there’s ample evidence from the FBI and others showing that Confucius Institutes are used to suppress free speech and to organize protests against speakers, including the Dalai Lama who come to U.S. universities to speak about human rights in China.”
Pfluger’s bill passed the House in September, but was not taken up by former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the then-Democratic-controlled Senate.
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