{"id":24539,"date":"2021-05-19T19:07:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T23:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24539"},"modified":"2021-05-19T19:07:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T23:07:58","slug":"biden-wrong-way-china-influence-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/05\/19\/biden-wrong-way-china-influence-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Swimming against the Tide (and Common Sense) on Conufucius Institutes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent years, the growing propaganda efforts by executed by China\u2019s communist government have come under scrutiny by congressional committees<\/a>, lawmakers<\/a>, non-partisan organizations<\/a>, and FAIR<\/a> too. And Axios recently reported that China has increased by 500 percent<\/a> its foreign spending in the United States. Now is the worst possible time to assist China in hiding its dealings on American campuses, but that is exactly what the Biden administration is doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late January, the Biden administration withdrew a Trump administration policy<\/a> that would have required colleges and universities to disclose their ties to the controversial Confucius Institutes, which are funded and governed by the Chinese government. It was hardly controversial and certainly was supported by the findings of a 2019 bipartisan report<\/a> from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations\u00a0examining the influence of Confucius Institutes at institutions of higher education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nbipartisan report documents the stunning lack of transparency and reciprocity\nfrom China in how Confucius Institutes operate inside the United States. \nAs China has expanded Confucius Institutes here in the U.S., it has\nsystematically shut down key U.S. State Department public diplomacy efforts on\nChinese college campuses,\u201d said\nSenator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who was then the chairman and is now the ranking\nmember on the committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Confucius rule was part of a broader effort targeting the Chinese propaganda machine, including the Trump administration\u2019s declaration<\/a> in August 2020 of the Confucius Institute\u2019s U.S. Center as a foreign mission of the Chinese Communist Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter<\/a> to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that asked if the DHS considers \u201cConfucius Institutes to be an extension of the communist Chinese government\u201d or \u201cpurveyors of communist Chinese propaganda.\u201d To both questions, Grassley added, If not, why not? It is almost June and no answer has been provided yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his May 11 Senate speech,\nthe Iowa senator noted the Chinese Minister of Propaganda pointed to the\nConfucius Institutes as key to their influence plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet, even with this clear\nthreat, the Biden administration is silent on the proposed rule other than them\ngetting caught retracting it. What more does the Biden administration need to know\nbefore they get the picture?\u201d asked Grassley, who has introduced a bill to make\nthe Confucius rule law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the Biden\nadministration\u2019s silence so damning is that there is growing consensus on Capitol\nHill, as well as among American colleges and universities, that China\u2019s soft\npower war poses a real danger to the nation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another measure, the bipartisan \u201cStrategic Competition Act of 2021,<\/a>\u201d would require that foreign grants, contracts, or gifts of more than $1 million would be subject to government approval. Meanwhile, academic institutions, such as the College of William & Mary<\/a> and Ohio\u2019s Miami University<\/a>, are joining other schools in voluntarily closing Confucius Institutes on their campuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tufts University in Boston\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0on March 17 that it would join the group of\u00a075 universities<\/a>\u00a0that have decided to close their Confucius Institutes. According to an updated list compiled<\/a> by the National Association of Scholars, there are 47 Confucius Institutes active in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about them at his nomination hearing<\/a>, current CIA Director William Burns said Confucius Institutes \u201cpromote a narrative of Xi Jinping’s China, which is designed to build sympathy for\u2026what is, in my view, a quite aggressive leadership, which is engaged in conduct and conducted\u2026an adversarial approach to relations with the United States.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hammer home Sen. Grassley\u2019s question \u2013 what will it take for DHS Secretary Mayorkas and the rest of the Biden administration to get the picture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years, the growing propaganda efforts by executed by China\u2019s communist government have come under scrutiny by congressional committees, lawmakers, non-partisan organizations, and FAIR too. And Axios recently reported that China has increased by 500 percent its foreign spending in the United States. Now is the worst possible time to assist China in hiding<\/p>\n

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