WATCH: Cardona says he doesn’t know about CCP efforts to influence higher education
Jeremiah Poff
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told a Congressional committee Tuesday that he did not have any information about efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to influence educational institutions in the United States.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) asked the secretary during a House Appropriations Committee hearing if he was familiar with the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to influence U.S. education.
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“I don’t have any information around specific efforts to try to influence [U.S. education],” Cardona said in response.
Moolenaar then asked the secretary if he was familiar with the existence of Confucius Institutes, which are academic institutes on college campuses funded by the Chinese government.
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“I don’t have information on the Confucius Institutes now, but I’m sure my team may be aware of it and look into that,” Cardona replied.
In a statement following the hearing, Moolenaar criticized Cardona and the Biden administration for not taking the threat of Chinese influence in education seriously.
“The Chinese Communist Party is actively working to influence our education system and children,” Moolenaar said. “Yet, Education Secretary Cardona is unaware and unprepared on how to counter CCP influence efforts, whether in the form of Confucius Institutes at colleges or in taking a stand against TikTok, a CCP spyware app. Cardona and the Biden administration need to wake up and take the CCP’s efforts to influence U.S. education seriously.”
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The issue of foreign funding in higher education, especially from the Chinese government, has been a national security concern raised by lawmakers for several years. Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires institutions of higher education to report any funding exceeding $250,000 that was received from foreign sources.
In 2020, the Department of Education under then-secretary Betsy DeVos released a report that detailed extensive unreported foreign funding. The report detailed $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign funds, of which a significant amount had come from Chinese government sources.