(RightWing.org) – The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used various methods to infiltrate American educational facilities and research centers for years. For instance, the nation’s propagandists created a program called the Confucious Institutes in 2004 to form partnerships with colleges under the guise of promoting China’s language and culture. A recent report indicated that the Georgia Institute of Technology is under investigation for its reported ties to the CCP.
On May 9, the House Select Committee on the CCP issued a press release announcing the panel’s launch of an investigation into Georgia Tech regarding its partnership with Tianjin University, a college with ties to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) will coordinate the probe with the assistance of Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the head of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The press release advised that Georgia Tech officials were using funding from the Department of Defense to help finance sensitive research aided by Tianjin University. The statement also noted that the US Department of Commerce placed the school on its Entity List (a federal trade blacklist) for “stealing American technology with military applications.”
The lawmakers sent a letter to Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera reminding him that Tianjin University appears on the Commerce Department’s blacklist. The letter pointed out that the American university had continued working with the Chinese school for several years, even though it is “prohibited from exporting technologies” under the blacklist’s terms.
Equally concerning, the letter noted that the lawmakers have concerns regarding the nature of Georgia Tech’s disclosure of its funding ties to Tianjin University, or lack thereof. For instance, the committee heads and ranking members pointed out that Chinese Shenzhen University recently allocated at least a quarter of a billion dollars to construct the Georgia Tech Shenzen Institute campus, “signifying” the facility’s importance to the CCP.
As a side note, Shenzhen University has received widespread support within academic and political circles within Communist China. That might explain, in part, the municipality’s interest in funding a campus at an American research school — aside from both Chinese universities’ ties to the PLA.
The lawmakers concluded their letter by asking Cabrera to turn over documents and information regarding its relationship with Tianjin University, research partnerships, collaborations, and funding.
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