Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, said Thursday that China’s government is paying university professors to spread propaganda and turn over American technology and intellectual property to the communist government.
“Communist China is infiltrating American universities,” Brooks said. “They’re paying professors big money to spread Communist Chinese propaganda and turn over America’s intellectual property and key technology. American professors shouldn’t be aiding America’s geopolitical foe. To fight Communist Chinese influence on American soil, I have cosponsored “The America First Act.” The bill requires universities, particularly professors, to disclose foreign financial gift information. America needs transparency in our higher education system to guard against potentially harmful foreign influence and to protect the integrity of American universities.”
Brooks cited a recent opinion piece written by John David, a Communications and Administrative Associate with the National Association of Scholars (NAS).
David denounced the Chinese sponsored Thousand Scholars program as “The Thousand Traitors Program.”
David cited the case of Charles Lieber who was recently charged with “making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement” to the Department of Defense. Lieber was the Chair of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department at Harvard University. Prosecutors claim that Dr. Lieber lied repeatedly to federal investigators about his participation in China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” and in particular about his collaboration with Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) as a “Strategic Scientist.”
Lieber is one of the top chemists in the world. As such he was recruited by China’s “Thousand Talents Program” (TTP). TTP is a “talent recruitment program” launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2008.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations warns that China may have signed more than 7,000 foreign scientists and engineers to lucrative employment contracts—exceeding its original recruitment goal of 2,000 more than threefold. TTP paid Lieber “$50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and … more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT.” All of this while he was getting paid by Harvard.
“Lieber allegedly used his work at Harvard to support his WUT “shadow lab,” collected millions from China, and left Harvard in the dark.” David wrote. “China tirelessly aims to improve its science and engineering, both in pursuit of wealth and as a component of its geopolitical rivalry with the United States. This rising great power frequently uses underhanded means to acquire its rivals’ intellectual property. TTP is one of hundreds of Chinese programs designed to steal American secrets and corrupt American institutions.”
China has also come under increasing criticism for its persecution of religion, suppression of Hong Kong, treatment of the Uighurs, Tibet policy, and the construction of militarized new islands in the South China Sea. The Trump administration and China had been at odds over trade issues, including the theft of intellectual property. China retaliated over Trump ‘s tariffs by refusing to buy American farm products, devastating the U.S. farm economy.
In January, the Chinese signed round one of a new trade agreement; then the coronavirus managed to escape China. The novel strain of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. Intelligence sources claim that the Chinese Communist Party controlled government withheld information about the virus for weeks, even from its own people. By January 20 the coronavirus was in the U.S. due to travelers from China. By February 27 the first American died of COVID-19. As of Wednesday,451,808 people globally have died in the global pandemic, including 119,941 Americans.
Brooks, among others, have been highly critical of the Chinese government.
Brooks is in his fifth term representing Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District. Brooks won the Republican primary in March with 80 percent of the vote and has no Democratic opponent.
