Princeton Took Millions From CCP-Linked School, Think Tank Head

[Happy New Year]

Scholars at the Ivy League school decry DOJ initiative to root out
Chinese influence

Princeton University has taken millions of dollars in donations from
a Chinese state-sponsored university and the founder of a think tank
aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, according to federal
records.

The Ivy League school has received $4.6 million from CCP-controlled
Peking University to fund research hubs for drug development and
computer science. Tung Chee-hwa, the founder of the China-U.S.
Exchange Foundation, has given at least $1 million to fund
Princeton's Center on Contemporary China. Tung and the exchange
foundation are both central to the Communist Party's foreign
influence network.

China has aggressively cultivated relationships with American
universities and think tanks in recent years. While some of these
partnerships aim to promote genuine student and research exchange,
FBI director Christopher Wray has warned of China's increased use of
"non-traditional collectors (of intelligence), especially in the
academic setting." The Justice Department in 2018 formed the China
Initiative to root out China's efforts to steal technology from
American businesses and universities and to influence American
policymakers.

Princeton and other elite schools have bristled at the China
Initiative, saying it creates a "chilling effect" for academic
research and stokes "anti-Asian bias." Nearly 200 faculty members at
Princeton University urged Attorney General Merrick Garland in
October to shutter the initiative. They asserted that investigations
have not focused on economic espionage, but instead have targeted
researchers who failed to disclose their work for the Chinese
government.

While Princeton faculty fume, the school's donations from China are
the sort of activity that the China Initiative is designed to
monitor, according to one national security expert.

"The Chinese Communist Party's goal is to spread soft power
influence while siphoning American research to use for its own
nefarious agenda," says Will Coggin, managing director of the
American Security Institute, which compiled the data on China's
donations to Princeton from Department of Education databases.
"That's why it's exceptionally concerning that Princeton accepted
$4.6 million from the Chinese government to research drug
development and computer science—two areas where China is outpacing
the United States."

The Chinese government, through Peking University's satellite campus
in Shenzhen, awarded Princeton a five-year, $4.6 million contract in
June 2018 to establish research facilities that focused on drug
discovery and computer science, according to Department of Education
records.

Months after the donation, the Chinese Communist Party tightened
control of student activities at Peking University. The school
announced it was implementing "internal control and measures" in
order to control student activist groups that criticized the
government. According to a report this month from the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, Peking University's work in the fields of
nuclear physics and nuclear weapons development supports China's
national defense industry. Peking also conducts classified work on
semiconductors, satellite communications, flight propulsion, and
computer science. Princeton researchers have worked with Peking
University Shenzhen scholars on semiconductor research.

Princeton received two anonymous donations from China for $1.3
million earlier this year to fund professorships in the school's
computer science department, according to Department of Education
records.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) says American colleges' relationships with
the Chinese Communist Party create national security risks for the
United States.

"The stranglehold that the Chinese Communist Party has over American
universities poses acute risks to our national security," Cruz, who
obtained his bachelor's degree from Princeton, told the Washington
Free Beacon. "The CCP uses American research and relationships to
push propaganda, conduct espionage, and coerce silence regarding
their crimes and atrocities. The Democratic Party is beholden to
their donors and sponsors in higher education and because of that
the CCP has alarming access to American lawmakers."

Cruz and other American officials, including CIA director William
Burns, have warned about affiliating with another prominent
Princeton benefactor, Tung Chee-hwa.

Tung, the founder of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, is a major
donor to Princeton's Center on Contemporary China, which sponsors
research, hosts policy forums, and leads student visits to Beijing
each year. Tung is an influential figure in the united front system,
which carries out the Chinese Communist Party's overseas influence
efforts. He also serves as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body for the Chinese
Communist Party. The China-U.S. Exchange Foundation has provided
research that the center's director used for an article in the
Journal of Contemporary China.

Tung has given at least $1 million since 2012, according to data
compiled by the Clarion Project.

Burns told Congress this year that he cut ties with the China-U.S.
Exchange Foundation when he served as president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. He told the Senate Intelligence
Committee that the Chinese government uses the China-U.S. Exchange
Foundation as part of its "whole-of-government approach … to try and
influence political, economic, and cultural developments to benefit
CCP interests."

Cruz played a major role in the University of Texas's 2018 decision
to reject funding from the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation.

While the Center on Contemporary China does not offer a full-
throated endorsement of China's policies, it has largely avoided the
hot-button topics gripping China, such as its genocide against
Muslims in Xinjiang and its crackdown of pro-democracy dissenters.

"Censorship, intellectual property theft, and human rights abuses
are all key contemporary issues in China, yet Princeton's so-called
Center on Contemporary China is ignoring these issues," Coggin told
the Free Beacon.

Princeton did not respond to requests for comment.


https://freebeacon.com/campus/princeton-took-millions-from-ccp-
linked-school-think-tank-head/