Gallagher: UW must end foreign ties

Posted at 12:55 p.m. on October 20, 2021

The Brillion News

MADISON – Wisconsin Republican Eighth District Congressman Mike Gallagher, of Green Bay, on October 20 testified before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges about the threats posed by universities getting too chummy with foreign governments.

He specifically targeted university ties to Communist China.

He specifically addressed the threats higher education institutions face from foreign adversaries.

Gallagher addressed specific threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party and outlined five ways that Wisconsin can protect itself against these threats.

These steps include:

• Ending universities’ dependence on China as a source of revenue,

• Blocking technology transfers between campuses and China,

• Divesting endowments and state pensions from Chinese companies,

• Investing in the technological fight for the future, and

• Training the next generation to win the 21st century.

“It is time to choose. American universities and businesses can choose to side with our country, or they can choose to side with the genocidal communist regime that wants to destroy our way of life,” Gallagher said. “The five steps I’ve outlined are a start, but they all rest on the assumption that American Universities are still committed to intellectual freedom.”

Gallagher said we need to end university dependence on China as a source of revenue for college programs, including research

“A good example is the Confucius Institute network, which has rightly come under scrutiny for its lack of transparency and potential for censorship ... There were Confucius Institutes at more than 100 American colleges, receiving more than $150 million from the Chinese government,” Gallagher said. “I applaud UW Platteville for closing its Confucius Institute earlier this spring. But some universities are simply re-naming their Confucius Institutes to get around federal restrictions.”

Gallagher called for an end to “dark foreign money” corrupting American university campuses.

“At a minimum, the entire University of Wisconsin system should commit to full transparency when it comes to foreign sources of funding,” Gallagher said.