Harvard University reportedly accepted over $100 million from China and about $1.6 million from “Palestinian territories” since 2017.
A new Open the Books report released Thursday found the Ivy League school has accepted $1.1 billion from foreign sources since 2017 alone. The Department of Education on April 18 launched a records request into Harvard after finding “the university’s foreign reports revealed incomplete and inaccurate disclosures.”
“As a recipient of federal funding, Harvard University must be transparent about its relations with foreign sources and governments,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said at the time. “Unfortunately, our review indicated that Harvard has not been fully transparent or complete in its disclosures, which is both unacceptable and unlawful. This records request is the Trump Administration’s first step to ensure Harvard is not being manipulated by, or doing the bidding of, foreign entities, which include actors who are hostile to the interests of the United States and American students.”
Little to no description was given for how the money from China and the Palestinian territories was spent, according to Open the Books. About $34.2 million in contracts from China, however, went towards “designat[ing] a principle investigator” likely relating to research projects, essentially allowing China to choose who is in charge of research.
The university previously came under fire in 2020 when a Harvard professor was charged with lying to authorities about his affiliation with China’s Wuhan University of Technology. The professor conducted at least $15 million in U.S.-sponsored research while also raking in a $50,000 per month salary with the Chinese Thousand Talents program, according to a 2023 summary of the case from the Department of Justice.
Harvard also accepted millions of dollars from England, Japan and Hong Kong, Open the Books found.
The Trump administration hit the university repeatedly over its response to pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism on campus after a September Congressional investigation found “Harvard failed” to discipline students who engaged in antisemitic protests. Harvard demonstrators disrupted classes, occupied a campus building and a set up a multi-day encampment.
The university has rejected the administration’s demands to reform and better enforce disciplinary processes, improve screening of international students for “hostile” views and audit “programs with egregious records of antisemitism,” among other things. In response, the administration immediately revoked billions of dollars worth of grants to the school, which Harvard has since sued over.
Harvard did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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