House Republicans Investigate Harvard’s Collaborations With China

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party opened an investigation on Monday into Harvard’s partnerships with organizations accused of having ties to the CCP.

In a 14-page letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, Republicans led by committee chair John R. Moolenaar (R-Mich.) accused Harvard of “hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary organization” and using Department of Defense funding to partner with China-based scholars with ties to the People’s Liberation Army.

“The United States must maintain an edge in science, technology, and development to counter national security threats from the PRC. Harvard’s collaboration with the PRC military-linked institutions blunts this edge,” Moolenaar wrote in the letter, which was co-signed by House Committee on Education and the Workforce chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and House Republican Conference chair Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.).

A Harvard spokesperson confirmed that the University had received the letter, but declined to comment on the specific allegations.

In the letter, Mooleenar, Walberg, and Stefanik called for comprehensive records of Harvard’s dealings with sanctioned Chinese entities, full details on events involving CCP-linked affiliates, and disclosures of any CCP-sourced gifts or donations.

The Republicans also threatened to pull Harvard’s tax-exempt status if it was found to have worked with China-based entities without proper disclosure — a threat that President Donald Trump levied against Harvard last month over allegations of campus antisemitism.

“Assisting known, sanctioned paramilitary human rights abusers in developing policy and advancing their foreign military capabilities may undermine Harvard’s nonprofit mission,” the committee wrote.

The House Republicans singled out the repeated participation of the Xinjiang Production and Constructions Corp in executive education events held by the Harvard China Health Partnership at the Harvard School of Public Health. The XPCC faced sanctions from the U.S. government under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration over its involvement in the detention and forced labor of Xinjiang’s Uyghur ethnic minority.

“We are deeply concerned that the services and resources provided through these events may violate U.S. law and could have been deployed by XPCC to further repress the Uyghur people and other minorities in China,” the Republicans wrote, citing training sessions held in October 2023 and November 2024.

Moolenaar, Walberg, and Stefanik also took aim at Harvard’s academic collaborations. They alleged that at least four faculty-led studies since 2020 were co-authored with China-based researchers funded by the Iran National Sciences Foundations — a group they called“an agent of the Iranian government.”

The letter also flagged studies that received U.S. military funding and were conducted with researchers from Tsinghua, Zhejiang, and Huazhong universities. They pointed to projects in photonics, polymer science, and soft robotics as a sign of Harvard’s lax oversight of dual-use research partnerships.

“U.S. research institutions should not become a backdoor for potential adversaries to learn the thought processes of one of the most critical institutions charged with keeping Americans safe,” the committee wrote.

The committee also listed seven studies related to organ transplantation that were coauthored by researchers from Harvard and from Chinese universities.

The Monday letter is the latest on a growing list of congressional investigations into Harvard’s operations. In April, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — which is chaired by Stefanik — launched an investigation into alleged civil rights violations over the University’s response to antisemitism. And just two weeks before, the House Judiciary Committee threatened to subpoena the University for documents related to an antitrust probe into tuition collusion between Harvard and other Ivy League universities.

Republicans have repeatedly focused on Harvard’s foreign connections. A month ago, the Department of Education asked Harvard to turn over records on its foreign funding. And after a House Committee on Education and the Workforce investigation last year, Republicans recommended “investigating the potential influence of “dark money from Iran, Qatar, and associates of terrorist groups on campus.”

It is also not the first time that Congress has taken aim at Harvard’s dealings with the CCP. In October 2024, the Select Committee on the CCP wrapped up a six-month investigation into the University’s handling of an April 2024 anti-CCP protest and found that a student who was filmed dragging a protester faced no disciplinary action, while three undergraduate students were placed on disciplinary probation for interrupting a CCP official. And in 2020, under the first Trump administration, both House Republicans and the Education Department requested data on funding to Harvard from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia.

That year, Congress also grilled Harvard after former Chemistry department chair Charles M. Lieber was arrested and later convicted for concealing his ties to China’s Thousand Talents program. Lieber joined the faculty of the Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School last month.

Harvard has until June 2 to respond to the committee’s request for documents.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.