WASHINGTON: Harvard University’s links to China, long an asset to the school, have become a liability as the Trump administration levels accusations that its campus is plagued by Beijing-backed influence operations.The concerns about Chinese govt influence at Harvard are not new. Some US lawmakers, many of them Republicans, have expressed worries that China is manipulating Harvard to gain access to advanced technologies.“For too long, Harvard has let the Chinese Communist Party exploit it,” a White House official told Reuters on Friday, adding the school had “turned a blind eye to vigilante CCP-directed harassment on-campus.” Harvard did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Harvard’s links to China, which include research partnerships and China-focused academic centres, are longstanding. The Chinese embassy in Washington said: “Educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the US are mutually beneficial and should not be stigmatised.”The complexity and overlapping nature of the school’s ties with China have attracted criticism. For example, Harvard provided public health-related training to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) officials after 2020. That year the US imposed sanctions on the Chinese paramilitary organisation for its role in alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.In another episode, US business intelligence firm Strategy Risks said Ronnie Chan, who facilitated a $350 million donation to Harvard in 2014, is a member of the China-United States Exchange Foundation. The organisation has been classified as a foreign principal under US law, requiring US lobbyists working for it to disclose that work to the US govt. (This is a Reuters story)
