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

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/