Campus Reform: Harvard under House probe for ‘close’ ties with Chinese Communist Party entities
A U.S. House of Representatives inquiry is underway into Harvard University’s alleged connections with entities affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a letter sent by three House Republicans to Harvard President Alan Garber.
The letter, obtained by The Washington Free Beacon, was sent to the Harvard administration on Wednesday.
The notice is signed by Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chairwoman of the House Republican Leadership.
According to the letter, whistleblowers informed the committees that “Harvard has maintained close, formal relationships directly with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities.”
Among these relationships, the letter highlights a longstanding partnership between the Harvard Kennedy School and the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong (CELAP), a training institution overseen by the CCP’s powerful Central Organization Department.
According to the letter, the CCP Organization Department is “responsible for the regimented training program centered on ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ provided to the Party elites and controls the placement of CCP members in key leadership positions.”
The committees are requesting all relevant documents from Jan. 1, 2015 to July 30, 2025, including records of monetary and non-monetary benefits received from any PRC or CCP-linked entities. The deadline for Harvard’s response is Aug. 7.
According to data from the Department of Education, Harvard received over $1.4 billion from 77 foreign countries between 2015 and 2024, including $200 million from Hong Kong, and $150 million from China.
In June, the watchdog group, Americans for Public Trust, reported that U.S. universities received nearly $12 billion from China and Qatar, warning that such regimes are using donations to “purchase influence.” Harvard alone reportedly received $246 million.
The director of the watchdog group, Caitlin Sutherland, described the statistics as “troubling.”
“Billions in foreign money has been flowing into colleges and universities for decades, and it’s extremely troubling that so much is concentrated from countries that are openly hostile to the United States,” Sutherland stated. “Nearly $12 billion has come from China and Qatar alone, frequently to elite research institutions like Harvard, MIT, and Columbia.”
In April, President Trump signed an executive order mandating strict enforcement of foreign funding disclosures by universities, reversing prior policies, and linking compliance to eligibility for future federal grant money.
“Protecting American educational, cultural, and national security interests requires transparency regarding foreign funds flowing to American higher education and research institutions,” the executive order states.