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FIRST ON FOX: Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, demanded solutions from Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin concerning the Protection Division’s (DOD) “insufficient steering” for schools searching for waivers to host Confucius Institutes on campus whereas sustaining division funding.
Banks, who’s working for Senate in Indiana, despatched Austin the letter on Friday concerning the DOD steering for schools trying to host the Chinese language Communist Occasion-linked entities on campus whereas nonetheless receiving federal funds from the Pentagon.
“This steering is an invite for the Chinese language Communist Occasion to double down on its affect and espionage operations at U.S. universities,” Banks advised Fox Information Digital.
BILL LIMITING CHINA-BACKED CONFUCIUS INSTITUTES PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY SENATE
Republican Rep. Jim Banks, who’s working for Senate in Indiana, despatched Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin the letter on Friday concerning the DOD steering for schools trying to host the Chinese language Communist Occasion-linked entities on campus whereas nonetheless receiving federal funds from the Pentagon. (Invoice Clark/CQ Roll Name)
“The Biden administration is once more undermining Congress’s efforts to fight Chinese language espionage and malign affect, similar to they did with their faux TikTok invoice and ongoing refusal to implement Part 117 disclosure necessities,” the Indiana Republican continued.
“Home Republicans are working day and evening on oversight towards a president who’s dead-set on appeasing Communist China,” he added.
In his letter, Banks urged “the DOD to revise this insufficient steering, which undermines Congress’s intent in Part 1062 of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal 12 months 2021 (FY2021).”
Banks wrote that in “Sec. 1062 of the FY2021 NDAA, Congress prohibited the DOD from offering any funding to any establishment of upper schooling that hosts a Confucius Institute after October 1, 2023” and that the “prohibition adopted a extra restricted provision within the FY2019 NDAA.”
“CIs act as brokers of the Chinese language Communist Occasion (CCP) on U.S. campuses, spreading Occasion propaganda, monitoring college students and dissidents, and offering China a launching pad for espionage towards our nation’s most useful analysis and know-how,” Banks warned.
“Congress meant for the Sec. 1062 restriction to encourage the removing of all CIs from U.S. campuses and to take away the espionage risk which CIs pose to DOD-sponsored analysis and improvement (R&D),” he continued.
Rep. Jim Banks identified that the March 28, 2023 steering from DOD “provides circumstances by which a U.S. college might obtain DOD funds with out closing any Confucius Institutes on campus,” however whereas “the steering imposes some restrictions on CIs for schools to qualify for waivers, it additionally introduces vital loopholes and fails to take critically the risk posed by CIs to nationwide safety.” (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Banks identified that the March 28, 2023 steering from DOD “provides circumstances by which a U.S. college might obtain DOD funds with out closing any Confucius Institutes on campus,” however whereas “the steering imposes some restrictions on CIs for schools to qualify for waivers, it additionally introduces vital loopholes and fails to take critically the risk posed by CIs to nationwide safety.”
“The waivers that DOD grants to universities to proceed working with CIs can theoretically final for a vast length. Per the steering, DOD additionally depends on the host universities, which regularly wish to protect their Confucius Institutes, to inform DOD of any modifications to their contract with their CI earlier than DOD evaluations their waivers. The waiver steering additionally requires universities with CIs to report the international journey of any employees concerned in R&D however doesn’t require any international journey reporting for Confucius Institute workers. Whereas the steering restricts some Confucius Institute workers from accessing any federally funded scientific information, it doesn’t limit CI workers from accessing this analysis if they’re additionally workers of the host college.”
Banks wrote that the “steering additionally fails to handle different loopholes associated to DOD funding of universities that host CIs” and that whereas “DOD imposes some constraints on U.S. universities with CIs, DOD can proceed funding international universities with CIs with none new waiver course of in anyway.”
“The steering additionally refuses to specify whether or not, after October 1, 2023, DOD will proceed to pay contracts and grants awarded to universities with CIs that didn’t obtain a waiver,” Banks wrote. “On condition that many federal grants can final for durations of three to 5 years, which means DOD might violate the regulation by persevering with to fund universities that didn’t even succeed at implementing the modest controls required by this steering.”
Banks blasted the steering because the DOD “bowing to the needs of academia and the scientific group to proceed their deep ties with China, regardless of the rising risk of CCP propaganda and espionage” and that a lot “of the latest steering derives from a report the DOD commissioned from the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medication earlier this yr, which argued in favor of such beneficiant waivers to permit Confucius Institutes to proceed working on U.S. campuses.”
Banks peppered Austin with questions, together with if DOD will “decide to recurrently assessment establishments’ Sec. 1062 waivers to take care of a CI and never solely depend on notifications from universities that their contractual relationship with their CIs has modified.”
“As with all his correspondence, the secretary will reply to the writer of the letter in due time, and we might not have something additional to supply on this,” a Pentagon spokesperson advised Fox Information Digital.
The DOD pointers state that the division’s Workplace of the Beneath Secretary of Protection for Analysis and Engineering Confucius Institute Waiver Program is accountable for contemplating and approving or denying waiver functions from any U.S. establishment of upper schooling that’s internet hosting a Confucius Institute and wishes a waiver from the prohibition on funding required by Part 1062 of the NDAA for FY 2021.” (STAFF/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
The DOD guidelines state that the division’s Workplace of the Beneath Secretary of Protection for Analysis and Engineering Confucius Institute Waiver Program (CIWP) is accountable for contemplating and approving or denying waiver functions from any U.S. establishment of upper schooling that’s internet hosting a Confucius Institute and wishes a waiver from the prohibition on funding required by Part 1062 of the NDAA for FY 2021.”
The steering acknowledges Confucius Institutes being linked to the communist Chinese language authorities and that American “establishments of upper schooling which can be internet hosting an institute assembly the definition of a Confucius Institute might apply for a waiver from the CIWP.”
“A bunch establishment making use of to the CIWP for a waiver should present a waiver utility package deal to the CIWP that features the next: A letter signed by a senior official on the host establishment requesting the waiver from the Secretary of Protection and certifying that the host establishment meets the CIWP waiver standards (listed in part 3, under); The documentation required by the CIWP (additionally listed in part 3, under); and Attestation that the host establishment will notify the DoD of any change within the contractual relationship between the Confucius Institute and the host establishment.”
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Final month, the Senate unanimously handed a invoice this week that clamps down on China’s attain into U.S. universities by tightening restrictions on Confucius Institutes.
The Issues Over Nations Funding College Campus Institutes in the US (CONFUCIUS) Act, launched by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., targets Chinese language-funded cultural facilities on school campuses that lawmakers have stated are being utilized for propaganda agendas.
Fox Information Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed reporting.
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