Foreign Funding of U.S. Colleges

Foreign Funding Sources

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, in just one year (2022), China gave U.S. universities close to $98 million. That same year, Hong Kong provided over $81 million, Singapore funded $69.5 million, the United Arab Emirates gave over $40 million, and Saudi Arabia donated close to $35 million.

Between 2012 and 2020, American universities reported anonymous donations from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia totaling more than $1.14 billion.

Penn Biden Center

The University of Pennsylvania, home of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, received over $76 million in gifts and contracts from China alone between the announcement of the Biden Center in February 2017 and December 2020.

According to the House Oversight Committee, donations originating from China more than tripled after the announcement.

Between 2017 and 2019, Penn paid Biden more than $900,000 (although Biden was just an “honorary professor” who never taught a full course).

The university employed at least ten people at the Center who later became senior Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Trump Starts China Initiative

According to the Department of Justice, roughly 80% of all economic espionage cases are tied to China.

Under Trump’s presidency, America implemented the “China Initiative” - designed to counter national security threats. Academia was identified as one of our “most vulnerable sectors.”

Foreign Funding Violations

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires that federally funded institutions disclose gifts and contracts from foreign sources over $250,000.

The China Initiative found over $6.5 billion in unreported funding to U.S. universities. The Initiative convicted, among others, Harvard University’s Chemistry Department Chair, Dr. Charles Lieber, for lying about his connection to China and hiding income from the Wuhan University of Technology.

Further, the Initiative found that Yale didn't report a single foreign source gift between 2014-2017, even though - by their own admission - Yale jointly runs laboratories "funded by Chinese granting agencies."

Biden Ends China Initiative 

According to FBI Director Christopher Wray:

The FBI opens a new China-related counterintelligence case nearly every 10 hours.

On February 23, 2022, Biden shut down the China Initiative. The Biden administration has defended its move as simply a “broader” approach to national security (without a specific focus on China). However, by moving oversight from the Office of General Counsel to Federal Student Aid, watchdog organizations have warned Biden has given the FSA a task “for which it is neither staffed nor for which it has legal expertise.”