An Indiana congressman is asking why is the federal government supplying money to U.S. universities and colleges with ties to the Chinese government, especially its controversial Confucius Institute program.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and other Republican lawmakers asked this questions in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin regarding Confucius Institutes.

The letter states the presence of Confucius Institutes “has long raised serious concerns about PRC [People's Republic of China] government influence and infiltration in our higher education and research systems,” especially leading to the theft of intellectual property.

Because of those worries, 2019 and 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibits federal funds from going to institutions that hosted a Confucius Institute after Oct. 1, 2023. Most American universities closed Confucius Institutes on their campuses, the letter stated.

However, the letter said that has not prevented the Chinese from seeking to maintain a foothold on U.S. campuses.

“Confucius Institutes, however, are far from meeting their demise on our university campuses,” the letter noted. “According to a recent report by the National Association of Scholars, while 104 of the 118 Confucius Institutes on American university campuses have closed, at least 28 universities have replaced the Confucius Institute with a similar program and 58 have maintained the partnership with the PRC university reached as a part of the agreement with Confucius Institute. 

"The single most common reason universities give when they close a Confucius Institute is that they are replacing it with a new PRC partnership program,” the letter added.

Rachelle Peterson, senior research fellow at NAS and co-author of “After Confucius Institutes,” said it’s the same game under a new name.

“Five years ago, with ‘Outsourced to China,’ NAS detailed how the Chinese government uses Confucius Institutes as central nodes in its overseas influence campaign,” Peterson said in a release. “Now we show that despite the demise of Confucius Institutes, colleges and universities have naively signed up for very similar programs under new names.”

These universities include University of Michigan, University of Hawaii Manoa, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, North Carolina State University, Stony Brook University in New York and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The letter noted that the Department of Defense has awarded funding with contracts extending beyond Oct. 1, 2023, to some universities that have replaced their Confucius Institute “with a similar program or institute directly or indirectly funded, or materially supported by the PRC government.”

The letter to Austin was signed by 57 House Republicans, including House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mike Rodgers of Alabama and House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York. It requested a response by Aug. 15.

Banks’ Communications Director Buckley Carlson provided a comment from the congressman. 

“Democrats and Joe Biden are sending billions of taxpayer dollars to research institutions, allegedly to help us compete with China, while turning a blind eye to Communist Party espionage at those same institutions,” Banks told State Newswire. “The Defense Department must get serious about safeguarding our intellectual property and cracking down on Confucius Institutes, or else China will keep inching closer to surpassing the United States.”

Banks, who voted against the certification of Joe Biden's election in January 2021, is chairman of the Republican Study Committee Chairman. The panel released the Countering Communist China Act, a response to The Endless Frontier Act sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

The Republican proposal includes the following:

• Bans the United Front Work Department — China’s political ops arm — from accessing U.S. financial institutions.
• Prohibits U.S. companies that get federal subsidies to expand their business in China to be affiliated with businesses with ties to the Chinese military.
• Prohibits universities getting grant money from the National Science Foundation to work with entities with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
• Establishes new sanctions on Chinese companies that steal U.S. intellectual property, including prohibiting them from transacting again with a U.S. person.
• Requires a determination into whether China’s negligence and possible cover-up of the COVID-19 virus would meet the criteria of negligently using a biological weapon.
• Creates a new congressional select committee to investigate what it terms “the COVID-19 cover-up.”
• Spends only $1 billion as compared to the $250 billion Senate bill.