- Concerns are raised about the questionable funding practices of prestigious U.S. universities, including Harvard, with a focus on issues related to anti-Semitism and potential ties to controversial groups.
- Qatar’s substantial financial contributions to American universities, totaling at least $4.7 billion between 2001 and 2021, and the potential influence on campus activities, particularly the rise of ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ (SJP) groups, are discussed.
- China’s strategic influence on U.S. universities, starting with Harvard in 1996, with a particular emphasis on the risks of intellectual property theft and economic espionage.
- The spread of ‘Wokeism’ in American academia, attributed in part to China’s influence through Harvard, with a discussion of woke narratives reshaping academic values and socio-political discourse.
- Recommendations for reforms, including calls for self-regulation within universities, a potential “ratio funding” amendment to reduce reliance on foreign funds, and concerns about safeguarding national interests in higher education.
“For university presidents – as for politicians at all levels, one of the most valuable talents for the success of their careers is the ability to say things that make no sense, with a straight face and a lofty tone.” – Tomas Sowell, American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator, commenting on the mindless drivel that often emanates from the academia.
Boy, was he truly vindicated during the latest Congressional hearing on campus anti-semitism that featured the MIT president Sally Kornbluth, the UPenn president Elizabeth Magill, and the Harvard president Claudine Gay, where all of them were heard stuttering inanities that practically justified the anti-semitic violence on their campuses, without a single word of condemnation for the Hamas sympathizers?
Their odious testimonies made the world wonder: are these fine human beings really fronting the institutions that personify the zenith of the free world, or are they representing indoctrination centers from behind some iron curtain? Did somebody inadvertently turn the clock back? Were they testifying in Nuremberg, haltingly rationalizing the pogroms, Holocaust, and supremacy theorists? All said, their testimony video went viral worldwide, sending a shiver down the spine of all those who looked at Harvard as a beacon of our civilizational ascent. Indeed, what gave birth to these new Poison Ivies? How did the champions of the free world go so wrong?
To answer that question, you must hold your nose, start looking at the supply side of this problem, and find out whose money is making this mare go.
Follow the Money Trail
Public colleges and private universities in America receive massive funding from the state or federal government. The top ten universities have collected $33 billion in federal grants and contracts in the last five years. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Stanford, and Northwestern have collectively received $6.6 billion each year from taxpayers, outpacing even their collection of undergraduate student tuition fees.
This is where the unaccountability cycle starts spinning out of control. A vast majority of this funding money – 88%, which amounts to roughly $29 billion – is provided by the feds in the form of grants, which these universities smartly invest in research in medicine and science. As these grants are giveaways, wherein the recipient university owns the final work product, the profits from the resulting intellectual property go right into their coffers, and the federal government and taxpayers receive nothing in return. Mind you, this funding is in addition to the endowments that these schools receive, ranging from $6.5 billion to $50.9 billion, which is where the pitch starts getting queer.[1]
Typically, wealthy university alumni tend to gratefully honor their alma mater through gifts, donations, and endowments in remembrance of their families, sponsor a piece of university infrastructure, or establish a formal academic program to study a particular subject more deeply. Apart from the alumni, these universities also receive huge endowments via fundraisers from private sector donors worldwide.
As for the Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia historically provided the largest amount of funding to American universities. However, neighboring Qatar has emerged as a significant contributing rival in recent years. A small but wealthy Persian Gulf petrostate, Qatar recently became the top foreign funder of American universities, donating at least $4.7 billion between 2001 and 2021.[2]
According to this report, Qatar began pumping money into American universities in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attack, delivering over $200 million on average each year. At the same time, six major American universities established “foreign campuses” in Qatar, in the Doha ‘Education City’. For the record, Qatar has donated more than $103 million to Virginia Commonwealth University for a fine arts campus, $1.8 billion to Cornell for a medical school, nearly $700 million to Texas A&M for an engineering campus, $740 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a computer science campus, $760 million to Georgetown University for a school of politics and nearly $602 million to Northwestern University for a school of journalism.
So, what exactly is the problem?
Qatari $$ and Anti-Semitism
A 2020 study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy[3] reveals a direct correlation between donations to universities by Qatar and other Gulf States and the presence of ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ (SJP) groups on campus. Remember how in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, it was these SJP chapters that organized rallies across college campuses, glorifying Hamas terrorists as “martyrs,” calling for a “globalization” of terrorist violence, and demanding the complete elimination of the Jewish state of Israel.
Let me connect the dots for you: The founder of SJP, Hatem Bazian of UC Berkeley, also founded the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and SJP continues to receive training and funding from AMP. AMP’s leadership is intimately linked with the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and its financial wing, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). The IAP has been found civilly liable for Hamas terror attacks, while HLF has sent millions of dollars directly to Hamas.[4]
So, it is but natural that all those universities rolling in cash piles from Qatar would go easy on SJP, whose rampaging student members enjoy greater university protection than the students they terrorize
Can you see the repercussions of allowing Qatar a place of honor on the donor plaques in these universities? Qatar is the most prominent financial backer and host to Hamas leadership, which is closely tied to SJP. So, it is but natural that all those universities rolling in cash piles from Qatar would go easy on SJP, whose rampaging student members enjoy greater university protection than the students they terrorize. Columbia was the rare university to react by suspending SJP – for just six weeks. As for the faculty that celebrated the massacre of innocent Jewish citizens and justified terrorism, Yale defended their behavior in the name of free speech, while Cornell practically rewarded it with paid leave. Yes, the corrosive Qatar funding has completely eaten up into the moral fabric of American academia, and on a quiet night, you can hear the Ivy League values rust!
Qatar has a long-term goal to achieve via these vast endowments. Charles Asher Small, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy, says the funding of universities by Qatar is part of a much larger effort to support the Muslim Brotherhood in its soft power operation abroad, in making Israel look toxic in the Western political and intellectual discourse. “Their soft power is aimed at demonizing Israel as well as promoting anti-Western and anti-democratic discourse to weaken the West. Antisemitism is the fuel to light that fire.”[5]
But what about the American joint venture campuses in Qatar? Have they achieved their stated goal of liberalizing an autocratic society and delivering American values to the Middle East? Hardly… The intentions were apparently honest. Cornell President Hunter R. Rawlings III declared in 2015 while opening its medical school in the ‘education city’ hub: “Part of our thinking was, most American involvement in the Middle East has to do with guns and oil. This project seems to have to do with medicine and education. It’s such a different message. Why don’t we try it?”
Why not? Indeed, what could go wrong? As it turns out, everything… Qatar is unique compared to other Gulf States, and partnerships with Qatar pose a unique threat to American higher education. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Qatar exercises extensive bureaucratic oversight of university operations. Many of these schools have had to compromise their values on their campuses in Doha. Professors enjoyed only “limited academic freedom,” while inconvenient books and concerts were categorically banned. In 2015, Stephen Eisenman, then president of Northwestern’s faculty senate, concluded in a report on his school’s Doha campus that “the ethics of establishing a campus in an authoritarian country are murky, especially when it inhibits free expression, and counts among its allies several oppressive regimes or groups.”
“The universities are living, breathing national security threats that function as indoctrination centers and bastions for nihilistic activists whose twin goals are the destruction of the U.S. republic and of Western civilization. They are breeding grounds for enemies of the state.” – Prof. Jason D. Hill
It may have been a bad deal for the woke American universities so far, but it is paying off spectacularly for Qatar. Northwestern’s branch campus increases Qatar’s influence abroad, and Qatar uses its influence to aid its friends, which include Western adversaries such as Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas. “American universities have invested substantial time and manpower to aid the development of an illiberal regime that funds and befriends entities hostile to American national interests.”[6]
No wonder Asra Nomani, an Islamic reformer, a former Georgetown professor, and an author of a prophetic book, ‘Woke Army’ lists all these universities and their key faculty members as the ones who are “poisoning America .”[7] Mr Judea Pearl – a prominent Artificial Intelligence scientist and father of the slain journalist Daniel Pearl, has surrendered to the fact that “Qatar owns our universities”[8] while Jason D. Hill, an academic philosophy professor of 26 years, sounds a grave warning, “The universities are living, breathing national security threats that function as indoctrination centers and bastions for nihilistic activists whose twin goals are the destruction of the U.S. republic, and of Western civilization. They are breeding grounds for enemies of the state. They are beyond reform. One deals with them the way one deals logically with any national security threat.”[9]
It all Began with China and Harvard
To understand how Qatar could manipulate the value system of almost all the American universities, you have to go back to 1996 and look at how a superpower-in-making took time out to establish and perfect a template to influence and shape the mindsets of the impressional American kids at the school level, quickly and probably irreversibly.
It was in May 1996 when a Hong Kong businesswoman and one of the wealthiest women in the world at that time – Nina Kung, arrived at Harvard Yard with the weight of her $3.3 billion in assets, coupled with heavyweight connections with the then-US President Bill Clinton, and managed to dazzle one and all with “‘an idea about Harvard helping interaction between American and Chinese elites.”
Kung’s initial seven million dollar donation to Harvard was just the beginning of a long collaboration with China, wherein China set all the terms of the deal. Her program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government won “startlingly rapid approval from the top brass of the People’s Liberation Army,” according to Robert D. Blackwill, who later became the U.S. ambassador to Bharat.[10]
The Chinese did not land in Harvard Yard by chance but purely by design, as a part of its carefully crafted strategy to manage American opinion. Looking back, it is evident that they studied the modus operandi of the American universities in minute detail and wondered “how they are run like business organizations serving the interests of their funders and ideologues.” And they zeroed down on Harvard for its sheer ability “to offer more than the others, in terms of its multinational network and influence at schools, companies, think tanks, the public, and governments around the world.”
Once this “influence and infiltrate” strategy was perfected at Harvard, the Chinese Communist Party expanded its sphere to gobble up other willing top universities. “Based on my organization’s findings, CCP has a targeted approach for U.S. universities based on the current funding for institutions,” Michael Lammbrau, managing director of Internet 2.0 – “a leading joint U.S. and Australia cyber security organization whose mission is to defend clients and partners from the most advanced threats,” wrote in Newsweek.[11]
Analyzing data on foreign gifts and contracts from the Chinese government reported to the Department of Education, Internet 2.0 found that top beneficiaries were Harvard ($138.77 million), Stanford ($96.7 million), UPenn ($92.59 million), Yale ($87.63 million), and Columbia University ($86.85 million). The CCP also reportedly donated tens of millions of dollars to USC, the University of Chicago, NYU, MIT, Arizona State University, and Kean University. Mind you, these figures represent only the financial gifts that universities have disclosed to the government. The actual numbers could be much higher. Let’s not forget how, in 2020, “U.S. universities failed to report at least $6.5 billion in foreign funding from countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates,” as per the Wall Street Journal.[12]
The budgets of most U.S. universities are increasingly reliant on Chinese money, with China being the largest source of foreign donations to U.S. universities since 2013.
The budgets of most U.S. universities are increasingly reliant on Chinese money, with China being the largest source of foreign donations to U.S. universities since 2013. Moreover, even the tuition fees paid by Chinese students are worth an estimated $12 billion annually. And why is this worrisome for the U.S.? Simply because of the opacity in the Chinese transactions, one can always assume the role of the state and the CCP in all the donations or contracts.
One can never forget here that more than 87 percent of CCP-funded schools analyzed are classified as “R.I.,” meaning “very high research activity,” according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions.[13] In other words, the threat of theft of intellectual property and economic espionage remains high. Have you heard of China’s Thousand Talent Plan? The Thousand Talent Plan recruits thousands of Chinese researchers and scientists to focus on cutting-edge technology in foreign universities. These researchers gain access to non-public fundamental research that can be used to supercharge Chinese innovation at the U.S. taxpayers’ expense. Again, due to the opacity of the entire process, danger looms large for American innovation labs from surreptitious Chinese researchers with connections to the People’s Liberation Army or blacklisted Chinese companies by gaining illegal access to work on controlled technology.[14]
Not to forget, over 100 American universities and colleges nationwide were home to Confucius Institutes (C.I.s), established in partnership with the Chinese government ostensibly to provide Chinese language and cultural instruction. “The most natural and obvious use of a Confucius Institute at an American college, from a Chinese perspective, is to act as a portal by which to gain data and information about U.S. colleges, universities, their faculty and students, and their general region, while at the same time functioning as a tool to promote a positive picture of China to the American public, especially in the face of much negative reporting about human rights, technology theft, and China’s role in the drug trade.”[15] However, there is another potential facet to the CI phenomenon. C.I.s were able to keep tabs on Chinese students at the host college or university to check on potential dissenters. Naturally, the CI program received tremendous backlash from the U.S. government, and most of the C.I.s have downed their shutters, looking to reopen under some other name. What’s worrying here is how the Confucius classrooms managed to penetrate more than 500 elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States despite censoring all political debates on China-sensitive topics like Tibet and Taiwan. No wonder the FBI’s position is crystal clear that the C.I.s are “ultimately beholden to the Chinese government .”[16]
By leading the way with their various programs, Harvard scholars have helped encapsulate China’s political positions in ways the West finds acceptable
After decades of chipping away with loads of cash, China has now managed to get entrenched in the mind space of American universities, particularly in the Harvard scheme of things. By leading the way with their various programs, Harvard scholars have helped encapsulate China’s political positions in ways the West finds acceptable. And what is their biggest contribution? Well, what this feral force of Harvard and China has unleashed in the First World is the fast-mutating virus of Wokeism that is reshaping the entire academic value chain into a new-fangled ideology that aims to turn the civilized world upside down, with buzzwords like pronouns, critical race theory, decolonization, etc. These woke narratives are then mainstreamed and amplified using the Harvard scholars’ credibility and access to media networks. Like it or not, Harvard has unwittingly functioned as an important public relations arm of the CCP, targeting the broad spectrum of American elites.
And it is this precise China template of exerting influence while retaining complete control that is now being followed by the likes of Qatar. Without the influence of China, a lightweight like Claudine Gay would have never made it to the top of Harvard. Without the CCP in Harvard, there would have never been a Hamas. Without a murky China, there would have never been a murkier Qatar, muddying the well of wisdom in America.
Lessons for Bharat
While Chinese billionaires work in tandem with their government to drive Harvard’s programs toward China’s best interests, the same cannot be said about Indian billionaires like the Mahindras, Tatas, Mittals, etc. Evidently, Bharat needs a well-thought-out plan of action on overseas educational philanthropy with a clear set of deliverables in their national interest. The endowments are only going to go up in the future as Bharat progresses economically, and it is here that a clear direction is needed from the government on its areas of interest. Can Bharat stay out of the parasitic ideologies of wokeism and look at purely STEM disciplines to invest in? Remember, China funds woke initiatives in the U.S. but ensures that it does not import any of those social justice theories back home.
The challenge for Bharat will be in the implementation stage of the New Education Policy (NEP) that almost allows Qatar-like collaborations for campuses to be set up locally. It is here that its political willpower will be put to the test as allowing American programs endowed with Chinese funds will provide them with an easy entry to the burgeoning Indian market, via which China can not only profit but also exert their influence on the Indian academia and shape up public opinion. The only saving grace is that – unlike the US, Bharat has shown the courage and willingness to take dicey Chinese corporations like ByteDance (TikTok) by their horns and ban them outright. Can Bharat show the same zeal in keeping out the Chinese Trojans from their varsities?
Will Bharat also stand up to bullies like UPenn, who had rubbed a billion Hindus the wrong way by sponsoring the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ event?[17] We will have to wait and see.
Closing Remarks
Meanwhile, the alarm bells against Qatar and China, in particular, are now ringing loud and clear in America, with prominent personalities like the former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, taking a huge offense to the pandering of the Chinese. “Think about that. An American Secretary of State can’t speak on an American campus because they’ll offend the Chinese Communists,” Gingrich disapproves of the deplorable incident wherein the ex-US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was blocked by MIT from speaking on campus because it would offend the Chinese.[18]
Could #defundHarvard be an effective solution to rope in Harvard (and other wayward institutions like it)?
Things have gotten out of hand in the U.S. as far as higher education is concerned. And just as this rot began first from Harvard, the cure should also start from the same Yard. Is getting rid of President Claudine Gay the only solution? Probably not; another equally incompetent lobotomized administrator might replace her. Nothing will change unless meritocracy first replaces the woke DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) norms, which should be consigned to the dustbin. Should #defundHarvard remain the only solution, then? Well, the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative nonprofit advocacy group, does advocate a “ratio funding” amendment to diminish the lure for CCP funds, which would “mandate that for every foreign dollar a university obtains, it is eligible for one less tax dollar.”[19]
All said, the world is watching every single news emanating out of Harvard, tracking the steps they take in pioneering the fight against Hamas and CCP. It is high time Harvard regulates itself, or else the world will be forced to regulate their affairs for them.
Citations
[1] Andrzejewski, Adam. 2023. “Substack: Wealthy, Elite Universities Like Harvard Taxed You $45 Billion In Last Five Years.” Open The Books. https://www.openthebooks.com/substack-wealthy-elite-universities-like-harvard-taxed-you-45-billion-in-last-five-years/.
[2] Arnold, Neetu. 2022. “Outsourced to Qatar by Neetu Arnold | Report | NAS.” National Association of Scholars. https://www.nas.org/reports/outsourced-to-qatar/full-report
[3] Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy; The Corruption of the American Mind: How Foreign Funding in U.S. Higher Education by Authoritarian Regimes, Widely Undisclosed, Predicts Erosion of Democratic Norms and Antisemitic Incidents on Campus; https://networkcontagion.us/reports/11-6-23-the-corruption-of-the-american-mind/
[4] Diamond, Gabriel. 2023. “Pro-terrorist cash is funding U.S. higher ed, and taxpayers should be upset about it.” The Hill https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4328440-pro-terrorist-cash-is-funding-us-higher-ed-and-taxpayers-should-be-upset-about-it/.
[5] Lake, Eli. 2023. “Qatar’s War for Young American Minds.” The Free Press. https://www.thefp.com/p/qatars-war-for-young-american-minds
[6] Arnold, Neetu. 2022. “Outsourced to Qatar by Neetu Arnold | Report | NAS.” National Association of Scholars. https://www.nas.org/reports/outsourced-to-qatar/full-report
[7] Nomani, Asra. 2023. Asra Nomani on X: “There is a critical conversation happening about hate against Jews on college campuses. I want to direct you to the first six names in my Cast of Characters for my book #WokeArmy. They are the professors and academics that foreign … https://twitter.com/AsraNomani/status/1732117343558308154.
[8] Pearl, Judea. 2023. “Judea Pearl on X: “@timnitGebru I’m actually suggesting that Qatar owns our universities and that Qatar money is the only explanation I have found of why university leaders are so reluctant to denounce pro-Hamas demonstrators who are calling for violence .” X.com. https://twitter.com/yudapearl/status/1731121651855863959.
[9] Hill, Jason D., and Oren Kessler. 2023. “Jason D. Hill on X: “As an academic philosophy professor of 26 years, I can say that Academia is not dead: The universities, as I’ve written several times, are living, breathing national security threats that function as indoctrination centers and bastions.” X. https://twitter.com/JasonDHill6/status/1732261921624141973.
[10] Malhotra, Rajiv. 2023. ““Snakes in the Ganga” | A Book by Rajiv Malhotra.” Rajiv Malhotra. https://www.rajivmalhotra.com/product/snakes-in-the-ganga.
[11] Lammbrau, Michael, Alia Brahimi, Michael Gfoeller, Joseph Epstein, Josh Hammer, Mark Davis, and David Faris. 2023. “Understanding Connections Between China and U.S. Academia.” Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/understanding-connections-between-china-us-academia-1785158.
[12] O’Keeffe, Kate. 2020. “Education Department Investigating Harvard, Yale Over Foreign Funding.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/education-department-investigating-harvard-yale-over-foreign-funding-11581539042.
[13] Carnegie. 2023. Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education®. https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/
[14] FBI. 2023. “Chinese Talent Plans — FBI – The China Threat.” FBI. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/the-china-threat/chinese-talent-plans.
[15] Girard, Bonnie. 2023. The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine. https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/the-rise-and-fall-of-confucius-institutes-in-the-us.
[16] McCaul, Michael. 2022. “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Threat to American Universities.” House Foreign Affairs Committee. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CCP-Threat-of-American-Universities-V3.pdf.
[17] Shukla, Suhag A. 2023. Suhag A. Shukla on X: “While @Penn’s Liz Magill is rightly being excoriated for equivocating about whether calls to “dismantle” the Jewish presence in Israel is bullying/harassment, it’s a good time to remember Penn faculty sponsoring the “Dismantling … https://twitter.com/SuhagAShukla/status/1732779722017214564.
[18] Gingrich, Newt. 2023. “Gingrich: Why is China secretly giving donations to American universities?” Straight Arrow News. https://san.com/opinions/why-is-china-secretly-giving-donations-to-american-universities/.
[19] Roberson, Kate. 2023. “Communist China heavily funds Harvard, Stanford, many other top universities: report.” The College Fix. https://www.thecollegefix.com/communist-china-heavily-funds-harvard-stanford-many-other-top-universities-report/