U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today charged that many U.S. colleges and universities have been bribed by the Chinese Communist Party, receiving at least $1.3 billion since 2013. He said the schools have practiced self-censorship to avoid upsetting Beijing, naming the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a nearly 20-minute speech at the Georgia Institute of Technology this morning on the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party to U.S. national security and academic freedom, as the U.S. administration has recently stepped up sanctions and criticism of the Communist Party.
Pompeo said that some of the victims of the CCP on U.S. campuses are innocent Chinese people, but the CCP is not only targeting its own people, they are also trying to influence American students, professors, and school administrators. The reason academic institutions rarely criticize Beijing’s blatant theft and infringement of freedom, and even practice self-censorship, is often because they are afraid of offending the CCP.
Pompeo, for example, said that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was not interested in bringing him to campus to deliver a speech challenging the Communist Party, and MIT President Rafael Reif hinted that his ideas might offend Chinese students and professors on campus. “But that’s never the case, and it’s these people that (my) speech is meant to protect, it’s meant to protect their freedom.
Pompeo pointed out that giving in to what he called “hurt feelings” is a trap for the CCP, which is Beijing’s usual response to legitimate criticism from around the world, and said that the CCP should not be allowed to use “political correctness” as a weapon to attack American freedom, nor should it be allowed to drown out efforts to expose its actions with false accusations of racism or Chinaophobia.
The Communist Party is the driving force behind the silencing and censorship on U.S. campuses, he said, and the root cause is that many colleges and universities have been bribed by Beijing.
Pompeo noted that the U.S. Department of Education has found in recent years that schools are estimated to have received about $1.3 billion from China since 2013; this is only part of what is known, and there are many schools that do not report the correct amount, such as Columbia University in New York.
Pompeo questioned, “How many more bad decisions will these schools make because they are hooked on Chinese money? Which other professors will they co-opt or silence? What theft and espionage will they ignore? What kind of business deals do these actions lead to?
Pompeo emphasized that tyrannical regimes must not be allowed to steal U.S. property, build military power, brainwash the American people, or buy educational institutions to cover up their actions, nor must the CCP be allowed to undermine academic freedom in the United States. He appealed to students and administrators at colleges and universities across the country to monitor their agreements with the CCP, to be vigilant against fraud and theft, and to urge the academic community to reject the Communist Party’s financial inducements.
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