UC Berkeley Collaborating with The CCP Through Partnership with Tsinghua University
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Earlier this summer, I initiated an investigation into TBSI, the joint institute that began here at UC Berkeley with Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen government in China.
TBSI has collaborated with Chinese military-linked universities, companies blacklisted by the Commerce Department sit on its advisory board, its alumni have gone on to work at military-linked institutions, and it has supported research that could be leveraged by China for military and intelligence purposes.
No American university should help the Chinese Communist Party develop or acquire technologies that strengthen the CCP’s techno-totalitarian surveillance state or China’s military or intelligence capabilities.
Perhaps just as concerning are the money trails surrounding TBSI. Hundreds of millions of dollars never disclosed, despite being required by law.
We need to enforce Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires universities to disclose foreign donations and contracts. Even if the current administration is not making this a priority, Congress will.
American universities have reported receiving more than $1 billion in donations from China since 2013, but that figure is likely a vast understatement as universities routinely fail to report foreign money, and the Chinese government increasingly uses American non-profits to avoid detection.
To all university administrators out there, my message is this: oversight is coming.
Your selective reporting will only court additional, and more punitive regulation. U.S. universities must be transparent about financial ties with adversary regimes or face penalties.
A Uyghur scholar named Rayhan Asat told Propublica that at US universities, “It is easier to take a stance against the United States than against China … They are self-censoring themselves in order to recruit Chinese students for economic benefit.”
We cannot be afraid to speak the truth. And the truth demands transparency.