FIRST ON FOX: The China Select Committee is launching an investigation into universities that partner with a Chinese scholarship fund, raising alarm over what lawmakers describe as a covert pipeline for Beijing to gain access to sensitive American research and technology.
This week, the committee is sending formal oversight letters to a group of major universities, including Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Temple University, University of Tennessee and several campuses within the University of California system, demanding answers about their involvement in PRC's China Scholarship Council (CSC).
The letters, first obtained by Fox News Digital, mark the latest escalation in Congress's efforts to confront what the Committee calls "systemic CCP infiltration" in U.S. academia.
"Under the guise of academic exchange," the committee writes in its letters to university presidents, "the CSC places PRC students - often in sensitive STEM fields-at American universities with direct financial support from both CSC and the host institutions."
CHINESE NATIONALS WHO INFILTRATED US UNIVERSITIES
Notre Dame told Fox News Digital the university had already terminated its CSC program. "We will, of course, respond to the inquiry and look forward to working with the Committee on this important matter."
A source familiar with Notre Dame's program added that the scholarship program had around two dozen students per year, mostly in the humanity departments, "not in fields that would be useful to China's military or scientific growth."
Spokesperson Jana Barnello told Fox News Digital Dartmouth "has already determined to end its participation" in the CSC program, and said "very few students" participated in it since it began a decade ago.
"We are reviewing the letter and look forward to responding to the Select Committee," she said. "Dartmouth remains committed to bringing the best and brightest students from around the world to our campus in accordance with U.S. law."
And University of Tennessee Knoxville spokesperson Kerry Gardner said: "We have initiated a formal review of the Select Committee's request and look forward to developing a prompt and thorough response to meet the Committee's deadline."
Under the joint program, CSC provides sponsored students with a living stipend and covers 50% of tuition for the first four years of their Ph.D. studies. Typically, the university covers the remaining half of tuition and living stipend.
The committee claims the CSC program is not the academic bridge it claims to be, but a CCP-controlled mechanism for technology transfer, ideological conditioning and surveillance of Chinese nationals studying abroad.
The program requires students to return to China for at least two years after graduation and submit quarterly reports during their time in the U.S. on their research, publications, and ideological progress to Chinese embassies or consulates.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY'S ALLEGED TIES TO CHINESE PARAMILITARY GROUP, IRAN-BACKED RESEARCH SPARK GOP PROBE
The letters suggest U.S. federal research grants may be indirectly subsidizing the CCP-affiliated students and their research.
Dartmouth, for example, won nearly half of its research funding, $169 million, from the federal government. Dartmouth's ongoing joint scholarship program with the CSC sponsors up to 15 Chinese PhD students annually.
The committee claims the program may also conflict with Presidential Proclamation 10043, which restricts visas for PRC nationals affiliated with China's military-civil fusion universities.
The letters asked each university that all contracts and correspondence with CSC, lists of students' institutional affiliations before and after, records of federally funded research involving CSC students and evidence of any communications with the Departments of State and Homeland Security about potential visa issues.
The letter also raises questions about CSC-sponsored students who may have remained at US universities for post-doctoral research - possibly funded by federal grants - and calls on the college to explain how such a program aligns with U.S. national interests.
