On the one hand, President Biden is already giving Beijing a gift – even if that’s not his motive. His “No Trump” rule appears to be a higher priority than controlling China’s power: why else would the last president’s mandate require schools and universities to disclose any connections their foreign exchange programs have with Beijing’s foreign exchange programs? controlled Confucius Institutes?
The last president approved the order in late 2020, in response to growing concerns from the FBI, the State Department and the Department of Education that Chinese rulers are using Confucius Party to promote American schools.
Confucius Institutes operate in 75 American universities and officially offer cultural and language enrichment. And 500 primary schools across the country have a partnership with the Confucius Institute US Center in DC, which was designated a Beijing “foreign mission” by the State Department in August.
The now-canceled order did not shut down Confucius programs, but only kept them on federal radar. It followed news in December that some twenty top universities had failed to report at least $ 6.5 billion in funding from foreign sources, including China. Perhaps elite universities, eager to keep their funding secret, have prompted the Biden team to end the reporting obligation.
But the result is a relaxation of controls on institutions that covertly spread “CCP influence in academia,” such as Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, put it.
A sad thing for any president to do, whether he wants to avoid being embarrassed for domestic special interests or simply wiping out another piece of his predecessor’s legacy.