[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 63 (Monday, April 17, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1751-H1755] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-17
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. BEAN : it is an honor to stand before you and lead this Special Order tonight. I have a message. That message is our Nation's higher education system is being purchased and manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party. America needs a wake-up call. I thought that wake-up call would come in the form of a Chinese spy balloon. If it was the Chinese spy balloon sent to wake us up, it seems that America has hit the snooze button. A few weeks ago, several members of the Education and the Workforce Committee were briefed on the scheme, the manipulation of the Chinese Communist Party on higher education in the USA, and we were all shocked. It was a shocking report, and we wanted to share the truth of how China is infiltrating and taking control over higher education in the United States. Since 2013, $12 billion has poured into our higher education system from foreign sources. China is by far the largest of foreign donations since that time. Between 2013 and 2020, U.S. universities accepted nearly a billion dollars from Chinese donations. The tuition paid by Chinese students is estimated to be over $12 billion per year. It is time we look at this influence and take it seriously. It started over 20 years ago, Mr. Speaker, that China has been playing this game of infiltration, manipulation, and trying to purchase influence. It started with this game they play that they call the Confucius Institutes. These centers teach Chinese languages and culture but avoid discussing China's widespread human rights abuses and present Taiwan as undisputed Chinese territory. They are simply a propaganda machine funded and directed by the Chinese Government, and we haven't even gotten started on what they are stealing from us, Mr. Speaker. Tonight, members of the Education and the Workforce Committee and other invited Members are going to tell the story of just how far China has been infiltrating our university system. You are going to hear how top colleges and universities have not fully reported donations from foreign sources, including that of the Chinese Government. You are going to hear the administration is not enforcing existing laws requiring full reporting of these foreign sources. Universities, in their desire to seek donations from the public, sometimes unexpectedly or overtly take money from foreign sources and, in this case, many times from the Chinese Government. You are going to hear also how the United States is losing the technology edge that we have long enjoyed for many years in computing, science, and engineering, all kinds of energy sources where we were the dominant player, but now because of theft and China's influence in our university system, those edges in technology are now leaning China's way. You are going to hear about that.  {time}  2045  So, Mr. Speaker, as we begin tonight, I just want to say that it is long overdue that we hear the truth and we are fully aware how bad China is. I would first yield a few minutes to the chair of Education and the Workforce Committee, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).