Congressman Warns of Chinese Infiltration of American Education and Trade Sectors
As news broke that Chinese authorities are branding members of the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang as “extremist” for simply having a copy of the Quran, a U.S. congressman is warning of ongoing espionage efforts conducted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to infiltrate American universities, as well as U.S. trade and financial sectors.
“The Chinese Communist Party has been attacking our educational system for many, many years,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) explained on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Wednesday. “They’ve attacked it on several different fronts. One is that they have these things called ‘Confucius Institutes’ … where they conduct espionage on college campuses, and they’re allowed to get away with it.”
As reported by National Review, “Confucius Institutes (CIs) bring Chinese nationals to college campuses, where they teach Chinese language and culture using Chinese government-approved materials. The Chinese Ministry of Education funds the CI program, using it as leverage to build additional relationships that benefit Beijing.” The Trump administration clamped down on the program, but under the Biden administration, the institutes have been allowed to quietly resurface under different names.
Murphy went on to detail additional ways that the CCP is taking advantage of U.S. colleges, often with help of academia.
“Sadly enough, Chinese Communist Party citizens … are recruited onto campuses because they write a full check … for colleges and universities,” he noted. “You don’t have to worry about financial aid or anything, and they’re happy to get the money from China. … [Additionally, there are] so many endowments in this country. I submitted a bill last year, [and] we’re submitting [it] again soon to pretty much tell colleges and universities to divest out of China. You are feeding our greatest enemy and adversary today.”
Murphy further warned of a “‘thousand talents’ program where they’re sending Chinese scientists over … to our universities [and] scientific institutions where we’re training them, and then they’re pulling them back. … [T]hey always said that 150 of them were at Los Alamos, which are now back in China. So they’re stealing our intellectual capital in a ‘official’ way.”
The congressman also cautioned against the Biden administration continuing its push to pursue “green energy” goals by allowing increased Chinese solar panel imports, which have been linked to labor camps where Uyghurs are reportedly forced to manufacture the panels.
“America [needs] to wake up,” Murphy emphasized. “The Biden administration [is] pouring all this green energy money into China while they’re actually cranking out solar panels — only to crank out … two coal plants a week in China — to feed our insatiable appetite for everything green. … They are our adversary, and they plan on a world order, and they’re attacking different institutions — primarily educational, financial, and trade — to do this.”
Meanwhile, reports surfaced Wednesday that the FBI has been sitting on a report for several years that allegedly details a bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Biden, in which he “accept[ed] money in exchange for policy decisions on behalf of a ‘foreign national.’”
“I believe this president is compromised … by the Chinese Communist Party,” Murphy underscored. “We have seen how millions of dollars — and Rep. [James] Comer [R-Ky.] is showing this — have been transferred from the Communist Party to the Biden family. If he were not, why was he so soft on trying to find the origins of COVID? Why is he so soft on trade restrictions with China? He’s lifted tariffs temporarily off of China so that we can flood American tax dollars into China. … The right answer is going to be 2024, if we can hold on [as] a nation that long. I honestly fear that if we do not end up with a Republican president in this next election, we will not recognize this country in five years.”
The congressman concluded by stressing the need for more Americans to financially divest themselves from China as much as possible.
“I think every individual needs to call their financial adviser and say, ‘I want out of China,’” he argued. “Whether that be in mutual funds [or] in other stocks. … This is how Reagan was able to defeat the Soviet Union by financially starving it. The Chinese domestic economy cannot keep China up. It has to be exports that keep [the CCP] going. We need to starve China’s economy.”
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.