U.S. Reps. Mark Green (R-TN) and August Pfluger (R-TX) said they applaud the House’s passage of legislation that combats China’s influence on American college campuses.
Green, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the legislation, DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act (H.R. 881), would restrict DHS funding for institutions of higher education that maintain ties to Chines Communist Party-backed (CCP) entities, such as the Confucius Institutes.
“Beijing’s malign influence should never have been allowed to reach American campuses. Chairman Pfluger’s legislation will protect our universities from the CCP’s efforts to steal American research and innovation, which Xi uses to undermine our nation’s sovereignty,” Green said. “We must prevent American taxpayer dollars from funding our greatest geopolitical adversary’s sinister ambitions.”
A Confucius Institute is a cultural institute directly or indirectly funding by the Chinese government. Law makers said the CCP uses these institutes and similar program to spread their program, steal intellectual property and research from universities, recruit spies and conduct surveillance within the U.S., while harassing and targeting dissidents of the CCP. The legislation passed in the House in September 2024.
“The Chinese Communist Party has proven to be an untrustworthy, adversarial actor by continually undermining American interests at every turn––in no world should they have a front-row seat in our classrooms funded by our own taxpayer dollars,” Pfluger said. “The passage of my legislation sends a clear message: America’s universities and research labs will no longer be used to steal critical research, recruit talent for Military-Civil fusion enterprises, conduct espionage, commit transnational repression, and influence academic institutions to the benefit of the CCP.”