Harvard and CCP Influence

House Republican leaders, including you and John Molinar, the head of the Select Committee on China, are demanding transparency from Harvard and its president, Alan Garber, following evidence of repeated collaborations between professors and the Chinese Communist Party. The allegations include that Harvard hosted members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a CCP paramilitary group sanctioned by the U.S.

Why is a sanctioned group being welcomed at Harvard? It was also reported that researchers collaborated with academics in China on projects funded by the Iranian government. So we have Harvard right in the middle of supporting our two main adversaries.

You will be speaking at Yeshiva University’s commencement ceremony on Thursday—congratulations. I’d love to hear that speech in the audience. But what do you have to say about all this CCP involvement now at Harvard?

It’s deeply concerning, Maria, and this is an area where I’ve led in terms of oversight and accountability for these institutions of higher learning that have lost their way. We spend a lot of time talking about taxpayer dollars, but what deeply worries me are these partnerships—beyond the misuse of public funds—with our adversaries.

By law, these universities must report to the Department of Education. I’m concerned they have not complied with the law and are seeking partnerships with adversaries, whether it's the Iranian regime or Chinese communism. That’s not who we are.

This is one of the reasons why Secretary McMahon’s actions to withdraw those federal funds are so important. This poses a national security risk to our country and to the next generation of students.

So we’re going to continue pressing these universities to answer these questions and ensure that this foreign influence from adversaries, this infiltration into higher education, does not continue.

Yes, President Trump was already aware of this during his first term. Remember, the State Department indicted the Harvard professor who was sharing Harvard intellectual property with the Chinese Communist Party.