The US Education Department announced that it has launched an investigation into Harvard and Yale universities on suspicion of failing to report “hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts” from China and other countries. The agency said Yale may have failed to report at least $375 million in foreign gifts and contracts, “choosing not to report any gifts and contracts over the last four years.” Harvard, it added, may lack “appropriate institutional controls over foreign money” and “failed to fully report all foreign gifts and contracts as required by law.” “This is about transparency,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a statement. “Unfortunately, the more we dig, the more we find that too many are underreporting or not reporting at all. We will continue to hold colleges and universities accountable.” The Education Department said recent enforcement efforts have resulted in American colleges and universities reporting approximately $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funding stretching back three decades. Many of these gifts were actively solicited from countries “known to be hostile to the United States”, according to the Education Department. This includes nations that may be seeking to “project “soft power,” steal sensitive and proprietary research and development data and other intellectual property, and spread propaganda benefitting foreign governments”, it added. The investigations follow the recent high-profile arrest of a Harvard chemistry professor, Charles Lieber, for failing to disclose his ties to China. They also come on heels of the 2018 launch by the Trump administration of an aggressive “China Initiative” aimed at stemming the transfer of technology to China from academia, industry and other sources. On Monday the administration followed this up with a new “all of society” counterintelligence strategy. Harvard and Yale confirmed they received notice of the investigations and a request for additional information they are working to comply with. Academics say they recognize that universities need to strengthen safeguards given China’s ambitious programs aimed at acquiring foreign technology and trade secrets. But they say going too far risks undermining the free exchange of ideas essential to US competitiveness and scientific discovery. US charges Harvard chemistry chair with lying about China ties “This is about protecting our values, not only American values but academic integrity, openness that are not always there in China,” said Tobin Smith, policy director with the American Association of Universities. “It’s a careful balance.” One university official speaking on background said most of the letters received by major universities in recent months appear to have similar wording other than a few sentences related to their specific case. He said the education department has been under pressure from Congress. “It seems like they’re getting pressure so they’re putting pressures on us, in a big way,” he added. The education agency said that over half of the newly reported gifts involved 10 well-known schools. In addition to Yale, these include Cornell, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and Boston University. These are “multi-billion dollar, multi-national enterprises using opaque foundations, foreign campuses, and other sophisticated legal structures to generate revenue” it said, adding that it’s launched eight civil compliance investigations since June of 2019. The Higher Education Act requires most US colleges and universities to report foreign gifts over US$250,000 and any ownership stakes twice annually. In early 2019, an investigation arm of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee referred to foreign spending at U.S. schools as “a black hole”. It further claimed in a report that colleges and universities “routinely” fail to comply with the law, adding that foreign money can come with strings attached that could compromise academic freedom. The 2019 report also found that US schools initially reported receiving US$15.4 million directly from Hanban, described as “a propaganda arm of the Chinese government”. Hanban oversees China’s Confucius Institutes, which offer Chinese language and culture programmes. The institutes, located on campuses worldwide, face accusations that they keep tabs on Chinese students and undermine editorial freedom by pressuring faculty to follow Beijing’s line on Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and other sensitive issues. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Senate report found that two-thirds of the institutions that received over US$250,000 from Hanban failed to properly report the inflows. After the committee requested more information, some 100 U.S. schools reported receiving $113.4 million, over seven times the figure initially reported. Last Confucius Institute in Florida to be shut down If information on any gifts and contracts are not forthcoming from Harvard, Yale and others, the cases may be referred to the Justice Department for enforcement and the cost of investigating the case, according to a letter on the department’s website. The letter said Harvard has 60 days to supply detailed information on foreign gifts in 14 categories in line with the investigation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The department’s requests involving China are particularly detailed. Not only does the department want all gifts and contracts coming from the Chinese government dating back to 2013 and the identity of those who sent them. It also asked for gifts from Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corp. and the Thousand Talents Program, a program started by Beijing in 2008 to recruit foreign talent. The letter further calls for all gifts and contracts from Hanban as well as Wuhan University of Technology and “any university, school, or other education or research entity domiciled in or organized under the laws of China”.