Three House Republican committee chairs have threatened Harvard University’s nonprofit status over alleged interactions with the Chinese and Iranian governments.
Harvard repeatedly trained members of a Chinese “paramilitary organization” after the U.S. government sanctioned the group for its role in the Uyghur genocide, The Washington Free Beacon reported in April.
Harvard hosted and trained members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), which the U.S. Department of the Treasury described as a “paramilitary organization … that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party” while announcing sanctions on the group in 2020, the Free Beacon reported.
Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and John Moolenaar, R-Mich., sent a letter to Harvard president Alan Garber on Monday demanding comprehensive details about the university’s activities with the Chinese Communist Party.
Stefanik chairs the House Republican Leadership, Walberg chairs the Committee on Education and Workforce, and Moolenaar chairs the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party.
“U.S. educational institutions such as Harvard receive tax-exempt status, among other benefits, due to their educational mission of teaching, research, and public service,” said the letter to Garber.
“Assisting known, sanctioned paramilitary human rights abusers in developing policy and advancing their foreign military capabilities may undermine Harvard’s nonprofit mission.”
The lawmakers noted that Harvard researchers have also worked with Chinese-based collaborators on projects funded by an Iranian government agent as recently as last year. They said the partnership may have violated sanctions against Tehran and demanded a list of the projects.
“Harvard University must be held accountable,” Stefanik said in a statement. “I demand full transparency and immediate cooperation with the Select Committee’s investigation. We must ensure that no American institution enables the CCP’s military modernization or the Iranian regime’s technological ambitions — especially under the guise of academic exchange.”
Moolenaar said Harvard’s actions “are not isolated incidents — they represent a disturbing pattern that puts U.S. national security at risk. The Select Committee’s investigation will deliver answers, expose the truth, and hold Harvard accountable to the American people.”
Walberg added that “no American university or college should be assisting the CCP in expanding its influence, oppressing American citizens, or undermining U.S. national security.”
Last week, the Trump administration said eight federal agencies will terminate another $450 million in grants to Harvard on top of $2.2 billion in federal funding that it previously canceled.
Harvard announced April 21 that it filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and activism on campus.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
