Todd Young - Dr. Rich Swier

A Republican senator is calling for an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley’s reported multimillion dollar deal with a Chinese university, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Indiana Republican Todd Young urged the Department of Education (DOE) to investigate whether any U.S. laws were violated related to Berkeley’s reported $220 million joint venture with China’s “state-owned” Tsinghua University to build a 1.7 million-square-foot research campus in Shenzhen, known as Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), according to the letter sent to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Friday. According to The Daily Beast, who broke the story in May 2023, Berkeley allegedly failed to report the foreign funding for the TBSI project to the Department of Education in possible violation of the law, which Berkeley disputes.

“The longevity, scope, and origin of the funding is concerning,” Young’s letter states, “but what that funding provided to the Chinese is equally, if not more so, concerning from a national security perspective.”

The Daily Beast reported that, between 2014 and 2018, the TBSI project allegedly received $220 million from the Shenzhen government as well as a $19 million investment from Tsinghua University that was backed by a grant from a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Furthermore, Berkeley allegedly failed to report any of these foreign funds to the DOE prior to being contacted for comment by The Daily Beast in February 2023, according to the outlet.

Young’s letter asks the DOE to investigate whether or not Berkeley may have violated “existing U.S. law with regards to the disclosure of foreign gifts.”

In May 2023, Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of Berkeley, told the DCNF that although the university had indeed signed a “Master Affiliation Agreement” with Tsinghua University in 2016 that “arranged” for $22 million in “sponsored research” and “startup operations,” Berkeley has allegedly never received, nor benefitted from, a $220 million investment “made by the Shenzhen government, or any other entity in China.”

“UC Berkeley has no ownership of any of the facilities in Shenzhen and no agreements or plans to receive ownership interest in them,” Mogulof told the DCNF. “Therefore, UC Berkeley is not required to report this funding under Department of Education Section 117 guidelines.”

Young also expressed concern that the Chinese government may have “received other, more tangible, benefits from its arrangement with UC Berkeley,” according to his letter.

Between 2012 and 2021, Berkeley allegedly received over $4 billion in federal research funding from the Department of Defense and other government agencies, according to Young’s letter.

Therefore, TBSI may have allegedly benefited from “competencies, experience and expertise funded by the American taxpayer,” which China could have subsequently exploited, Young’s letter claims.

“Recent reporting calls into question the adequacy of existing guardrails to protect the security and integrity of American institutions of higher education from the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government,” Young’s letter states.

Berkeley’s Mogulof told the DCNF that the university “takes concerns about national security very seriously” and will review “past agreements and actions involving or connected to the TBSI to reconfirm that all required reporting and compliance has occurred.”

DOE did not respond immediately to the DCNF’s request for comment and The Daily Beast declined to comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

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“Immediate danger posed by the lame-duck session of Congress that is now underway.”

After Senate GOPers ganged up to abolish marriage and religious freedom, the next betrayal may be even more devastating to the survival of this country.

As usual, the talks are private and secret because somehow we became a country where politicians reach dirty deals behind closed doors to which only special interests are admitted, resulting in disasters like ObamaCare and the Inflation Increase Act, but the calculated leaks are bad enough.

The current state of the deal reportedly involves amnesty for at least 2 million illegal aliens in exchange for the usual “border security” fig leaf. As usual, the aliens get citizenship, the border only gets less secure.

“Depending on who wins the Senate Georgia runoff, Democrats will need either nine or 10 Republicans to pass any legislation in the new year.”

They got enough Senate Republicans on board to abolish religious freedom. So alarm bells are ringing.

A broad coalition of hawkish immigration groups and former Trump administration officials are sounding the alarm about a Democratic push to get an amnesty for illegal immigrants passed in the final days of the current Congress — and telling Republican leaders to “take all actions necessary” to block it.

Groups including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Heritage Foundation, NumbersUSA and the America First Policy Institute have signed onto a letter to congressional leaders warning of an “immediate danger posed by the lame-duck session of Congress that is now underway.”

There’s skepticism that it will move forward. But it’s a fundamental demographic priority which means that if there’s any shot at it moving forward, Dems will prioritize it. And Senate GOPers will find ways to rationalize the sellout. Some of the same Republicans who voted to abolish religious freedom are also vocal proponents of illegal alien amnesty.

Sen. Thom Tillis provided crucial support for abolishing marriage and is working on the illegal alien sellout. Sen. Roy Blunt, who is retiring, also came out for amnesty.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is retiring next year, signaled support for legislation to protect Dreamers, calling it “a pretty easy thing to accomplish if they want to accomplish that.”

Ernst is a big fan.

Sen. Joni Ernst is expressing frustration with the proposed $1.3 trillion budget deal Congress hopes to reach before a Friday night deadline, including the lack of a fix to protect young “Dreamers” from deportation.

She also is concerned the package does not address the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the country as minors but are temporarily protected from deportation by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, “which is such an important issue for many of us.”

“What they are trying to do is take out anything that might be controversial. At least that’s what has been expressed to us,” Ernst told reporters Thursday.

“I don’t see a DACA fix as being so controversial anymore,” the Iowa Republican continued. “We have to find a pathway forward for our DACA recipients. It’s disappointing that we’re not seeing that in the legislation.”

But Sen. Todd Young makes Ernst look conservative.

Sen. Todd Young said he supports a “path to legal status” for DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, as part of a broader immigration reform package.

That may be citizenship, it may not,” Young said. “My expectation is that it would be difficult over a longer period of time to sustain some sort of legal status that is not citizenship.”

Young isn’t confident, however, that any deal can be reached before the November election.

“It’s unfortunate to say it, but politics is trumping good policy – and long-delayed policy, in this case,” Young said.

Young said “nothing’s more important” than providing Dreamers with some measure of certainty.

To say nothing of the usual RINOs like Romney. There are a handful of senators potentially in play here who at least try to pretend to be conservative constitutionalists by virtue signaling on a few issues. They watch and see if anyone is paying attention before they vote. Is anyone paying attention?

AUTHOR

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PHILIP LENCZYCKI

DANIEL GREENFIELD