UPenn, which hosts Biden’s think tank, sees Chinese, CCP-linked donations soar

FIRST ON FOX: The University of Pennsylvania, house of President Biden’s think tank, lately tripled its donations originating from China, information reviewed by Fox News Digital present.

The Washington, D.C., workplace of Biden’s think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, beforehand discovered itself underneath a microscope after confidential paperwork had been discovered on the heart. The discovery led to questions concerning Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, which harbors the think tank. 

New information obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT) and offered to Fox News Digital present that the University of Pennsylvania lately noticed its donations from China exponentially swell from its earlier reporting interval, and a few of the cash has come from people and establishments with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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The University of Pennsylvania, house to President Biden’s think tank, lately noticed a tripling of donations from China. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

“As America’s adversaries continue threatening U.S. national security interests under President Biden’s watch, it’s no surprise that donations to our colleges and universities from Chinese nationals have continued to surge,” Caitlin Sutherland, APT’s government director, instructed Fox News Digital. 

“This is yet another clear signal that our institutions of higher education have become instruments of foreign influence under an administration that projects weakness on the global stage,” Sutherland stated. “The tripling of Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, home to Biden’s think tank, should raise serious alarms among lawmakers who are interested in curbing the growing power of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The information obtained by APT from Pennsylvania’s Department of Education reveal the college pulled in $25 million in contributions from entities and people in China between mid-2022 and mid-2023. This determine is a major enlargement over the $8.6 million they obtained from the nation throughout its earlier reporting interval protecting mid-2021 to mid-2022. 

The Ivy League college has amassed practically $130 million in donations from China between mid-2018 and mid-2023, an exponential increase from its earlier years. 

Meanwhile, a number of of its China-based contributors have hyperlinks to the CCP.

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According to the international reward report, an funding supervisor gave three donations totaling $205,000 between mid-2022 and mid-2023. Chung-nin Rock Chen, who obtained an economics diploma from the college’s Wharton School and an MBA from Northwestern University, just isn’t solely the Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress but in addition a member of the National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The CPPCC is the “key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation” underneath the management of the CCP, in accordance with the CPPCC web site. Tung Chee-hwa, who served as a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 2005 to 2023, is the founding chairman of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), which has been profitable at penetrating American universities on behalf of the CCP.

One report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a U.S. authorities company, in 2018 stated that the CPPCC is a “central part” of China’s United Front system, which works to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

Another main Chinese donor to the University of Pennsylvania was Kathy Xu, or Xu Xin, who donated a minimum of $10 million in December 2022. Xu is the founding father of Capital Today, a Chinese non-public fairness agency that was an early investor within the Chinese web firm Meituan Dianping, which has deep ties to the CCP. Bloomberg reported in 2021 that the corporate’s CEO, Wang Xing, attended a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrating the a hundredth anniversary of the founding of the CCP, signaling the billionaire was again in favor of the occasion.

In April 2023, Xu Xin, an alumnus of Nanjing University, met with Tan Tieniu, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC, at her firm and so they “exchanged views on NJU’s new progress such as the university-wide discussion, the Forging Ahead Initiate, and the latest developments in fundamental scientific research,” a press launch stated.

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The Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)

“The two sides signed a new round of donation agreements to further promote the construction and development of key disciplines at the university,” the press launch continued. In 2021, Tieniu was certainly one of a number of Chinese officers sanctioned by the Biden administration and was one of many “Deputy Directors of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LOCPG),” which Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated was China’s “main platform for projecting its influence in Hong Kong.”

In July 2022, RemeGen Co., Ltd., a Chinese biopharmaceuticals firm with analysis labs and places of work all through China and the United States, paid $170,550 to the University of Pennsylvania as a part of a contract. A Fox News Digital evaluation discovered that Dr. Jianmin Fang, the manager director and CEO of Remegen, was beforehand awarded the “National Distinguished Expert” by the group division of the Central Committee of the CCP. 

Weidong Wang, the manager director and chairman of the Remegen board, additionally has CCP ties, beforehand serving because the “deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress” and at the moment serving because the “deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress since 2023,” in accordance with his firm biography. 

“The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China is the supreme organ of state power. Its permanent body is the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,” a Chinese authorities web site says. “The National People’s Congress is composed of deputies elected from the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and special administrative regions, and of deputies elected from the armed forces.”

Fox News Digital beforehand reported that Ma Jianrong, a Chinese billionaire and CEO of Shenzhou International, donated a minimum of $500,000 to the University of Pennsylvania in 2022. According to a 2017 New York Times article, Jianrong is a “member of the Chinese Communist Party” and “an official in the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Congress.” A nonprofit group known as KnowTheChain beforehand ranked Shenzhou International poorly for disclosing “significantly less information on its forced labor policies and practices than its peers.” 

During a 2020 interview with China’s state-run Global Times, Jianrong stated, “We respect cultural and social customs. Only by uniting local workers can foreign expansion be successful… Our foreign employees have been well treated and no strike or other conflict has occurred since we began investing overseas 15 years ago.”

“When we introduce to the foreign partners the economic development in China, we pay attention to details,” he added.

The Penn Biden Center opened its doorways in 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Biden was employed as a professor on the University of Pennsylvania weeks after leaving the vice presidency in 2017, the place he was paid $776,527 in 2017 and 2018, practically double what its full-time professors made throughout the identical time, Philadelphia Magazine reported in 2019.

The publication wrote that Biden’s professorship was “really more of speaking residency” and that “[h]e’s been on campus so infrequently that it becomes news when he actually is there,” which was a complete of six occasions.

The Penn Biden Center opened in February 2018 and was based on “the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans.” 

In 2019, Biden took an unpaid go away of absence from the college after he introduced his presidential marketing campaign.

The White House revealed in early 2023 that categorized paperwork courting again to Biden’s time as vice chairman had been found on the heart in November 2022. The president’s attorneys then handed the paperwork to the National Archives and Records Administration.

“The Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity. In fact, the University has never solicited any gifts for the Center,” Stephen MacCarthy, the college’s former vice chairman of communications, beforehand instructed Fox News Digital. 

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MacCarthy added that since its inception, two American donors offered three unsolicited presents totaling $1,100 for the Biden Center and that “one hundred percent” of the middle’s funds is from college funds.

“Penn is fully compliant with federal law regarding the reporting of foreign gifts and contracts, as foreign gifts are all properly reported to the U.S. Department of Education as required by Section 117 of the Higher Education Act,” MacCarthy stated.

The University of Pennsylvania didn’t reply to a Fox News Digital inquiry for this text. 

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar and Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.