Press Releases

Rep. Jim Banks Reacts to IUPUI & MIT Cutting Ties to Chinese Government Linked Entities

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) released the following statement regarding recent reports that Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) will close the Confucius Institute on its campus. Confucius Institutes are operated by China’s Education Ministry and are a part of the “United Front”—the Communist Party’s foreign influence operation. With 90 branches on college campuses across America, Confucius Institutes exert influence through Chinese language classes and cultural programming.

Additionally, it was reported that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be severing its ties with Chinese telecommunications companies, Huawei and ZTE.  These companies have a long history of cybersecurity risks and serving as trojan horses for the Chinese government.  

Said Rep. Banks, “I applaud the recent moves by IUPUI and MIT to curb the growth of malicious Chinese government influence on their campuses.  For too long, U.S. universities have turned a blind eye to the snakes in the grass, like Huawei and ZTE, and the propaganda messaging through Confucius Institutes. The Chinese Communist Party in Beijing knows that U.S. universities are home to important research, some of which involves sensitive national security information funded by U.S. federal departments.  By using businesses and cultural exchanges as fronts, the Chinese government infiltrates these institutions and steal our nation’s intellectual property and secrets.  Thanks to the necessary steps by IUPUI and MIT, more schools are waking up to this reality, and I suspect many more will follow their lead.”

Background

In March, Congressman Banks introduced a bill called the Protect Our Universities Act of 2019.  This legislation is designed to reduce the spread of sensitive information to nations like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, by limiting access to the United States’ most sensitive national security-related academic research.  

Included in the bill is a ban of Huawei and ZTE equipment from use on any federally funded research project.  Additionally, the legislation would establish a waiver process, to be administered by the Director of National Intelligence, for any student from the nations mentioned above who work on a research project that is not in their field of study.

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Congressman Jim Banks represents Indiana’s 3^rd Congressional District and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Committee on Education and the Workforce.  Please direct all press inquiries to tw.arrighi@mail.house.gov.