Harvard’s China ties: Once an asset, now a growing political liability

Long advantageous, Harvard's China ties become a political liability

Harvard University's once-prized connections to China are increasingly being viewed as a liability, as the Trump administration accuses the campus of being a target for Beijing-backed influence operations.

Harvard’s links to China, which include research partnerships and China-focused academic centers, are longstanding. The ties have yielded major financial gifts, influence in international affairs and global prestige for the school.

Concerns over potential Chinese government influence at Harvard have been ongoing. Several U.S. lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have raised alarms that China may be using its ties with the university to access advanced American technology, bypass national security regulations, and suppress criticism within the United States.

"For too long, Harvard has let the Chinese Communist Party exploit it," a White House official told Reuters on Friday, adding the school had "turned a blind eye to vigilante CCP-directed harassment on-campus."

The administration decided to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, saying it fostered antisemitism and coordinated with the Chinese Communist Party. Among them are Chinese nationals who made up about a fifth of Harvard's foreign student intake in 2024, the university said to Reuters.

However, a US judge on Friday temporarily blocked the administration's order after the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university sued.

The university responded to the revocation by calling it a punishment for Harvard’s “perceived viewpoint,” arguing that it violated the First Amendment right to free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers, who has at times been critical of the university, called the Trump administration's move to block foreign students the most serious attack on the university to date.

"It's hard to imagine a greater strategic gift to China than for the United States to sacrifice its role as a beacon to the world," he said in an interview with Politico.

The China angle

The Chinese embassy in Washington issued a statement saying: "Educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States are mutually beneficial and should not be stigmatized."

While the presence of Chinese students at Harvard and the university’s connections to China do not, in themselves, indicate misconduct, the complexity and lack of transparency surrounding some of these ties have drawn scrutiny and criticism reports Reuters.

Many of the concerns raised by the Trump administration reflect findings from the Republican-led House Select Committee on China Reuters report cited.

One notable example is Harvard's provision of public health training to officials from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) after 2020—a group that was sanctioned by the U.S. government that same year over alleged human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. According to the Department of Homeland Security, these engagements with XPCC were still ongoing "as recently as 2024."

China has strongly rejected all allegations of abuse in Xinjiang, although both the Trump and Biden administrations have labeled the country’s actions in the region as "genocide."

Another case that raised concerns involves Ronnie Chan, who played a key role in facilitating a $350 million donation to Harvard in 2014, which resulted in its school of public health being named after his father, T.H. Chan, a real estate developer.

According to U.S. business intelligence firm Strategy Risks, Ronnie Chan is affiliated with the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong-based organization that promotes bilateral dialogue. This group has been designated a foreign principal under U.S. law, requiring American lobbyists representing it to register and disclose their activities to the government.

The China Initiative

Former Harvard professor Charles Lieber came under investigation as part of the China Initiative, a program launched by the Trump administration in 2018 aimed at countering Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft. The initiative focused on researchers and academic institutions, examining whether they properly disclosed financial connections to China, according to the report.

He was convicted in 2021 of lying about his ties to China in connection with federally funded research. In April, he became a full-time professor at a Chinese university.

The initiative was halted under the Biden administration after critics said it led to racial profiling and a culture of fear that chilled scientific collaboration.

Lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties have voiced concerns about student associations with ties to Beijing allegedly monitoring political activities on campus. In April 2024, tensions escalated when a Harvard student activist was physically removed from an event not by university staff, but by a Chinese exchange student—after interrupting a speech by China’s Ambassador Xie Feng.

During former President Trump’s second term, scrutiny of Harvard has intensified. In April, the Department of Education requested the university’s records on foreign funding, citing a review that found inconsistencies and omissions in the reporting of large donations and contracts from foreign sources.

The Trump administration's moves against Harvard have nonetheless alarmed some China experts.

Yaqiu Wang, a U.S.-based human rights researcher who came to the U.S. from China as a student, said the Trump administration's move to ban foreign students at Harvard was "completely counterproductive."

"The concerns over the Chinese government's transnational repression attempts to silence critics are very legitimate, and also espionage concerns are legitimate." Wang said. "But to try to address that by banning, not only Chinese students, but foreign students, is just beyond comprehension."

(With Reuters inputs)