Rep. Jim Banks Demands Answers on DOD’s Waiver Plan for Colleges Hosting Confucius Institutes

The Confucius Institute building on the campus of Troy University, in Troy, Ala., on March 16, 2018. Kreeder13/Wikimedia Commons

Rep. Jim Banks  (R-Ind.) expressed concerns to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) over its waiver plan that allows U.S. colleges to receive DOD grants while hosting Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes (CIs).

“CIs act as agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on U.S. campuses, spreading Party propaganda, monitoring students and dissidents, and providing China a launching pad for espionage against our nation’s most valuable research and technology,” Banks wrote in the letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dated April 21.