XPost: alt.vietnam.veterans, rec.arts.movies.past-films, us.politics   
   XPost: alt.atv, az.politics, tacoma.general   
   From: nobody@yamn.paranoici.org   
      
   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   
      
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