The University of California, Berkeley, received donations from a blacklisted Chinese research university, Chinese Communist Party officials, and a Beijing state-owned chemical company, according to records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The news comes days after the Trump administration launched an investigation into UC Berkeley for allegedly failing to disclose funding from China, including a $220 million government investment in Berkeley’s joint research institution with Tsinghua University.
Donor records obtained through a California public information request provide new details on Berkeley’s financial relationship with China and foreign government-linked donors.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires that American universities disclose the names and locations of foreign donors to the federal government. For four years, the Biden administration failed to strictly enforce the law and withheld donor names from the American public. As the Free Beacon reported, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month requiring more thorough disclosures.
The Berkeley records demonstrate that the administration’s more aggressive approach to foreign higher education donations appears likely to reveal unsavory financial backers.
One of the university’s donors is the University of Science and Technology of China, which gave Berkeley $60,000 for its chemistry program in 2023. A year after the donation, the U.S. Department of Commerce added USTC to its sanctions list for “acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of advancing China’s quantum technology capabilities, which has serious ramifications for U.S. national security given the military applications of quantum technologies.”
Berkeley also received $336,000 for its “research units” in 2023 from Vincent Cheung Sai Sing, a longtime member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for Shanghai City, an advisory body to the Chinese Communist Party.
The GS Charity Foundation Limited, the charitable arm of the Glorious Sun Group, gave $160,000 to Berkeley for international studies research in 2023. The Glorious Sun Group’s chairman, Charles Yeung, was also a member of the CCP national people’s committee.
Duane Ziping Kuang, the founding managing partner of China-based venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners, gave $75,000 to Berkeley’s business school. His firm was an early investor in ByteDance.
Several universities have listed gifts from China-linked donors as coming from other countries, as the Free Beacon has previously reported. Berkeley reported numerous donations from PRC-associated individuals as originating elsewhere.
Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire founder of CK Hutchison, donated $5.7 million to Berkeley’s biological sciences division in 2023. The funding was reported as coming from Canada, where Li Ka-shing has a foundation.
Li, whose business empire has deep ties to the Chinese government, is at the center of the U.S.-China trade dispute over the Panama Canal.
President Trump has cited CK Hutchinson’s ownership of the waterway’s port operations as evidence that China is “operating the Panama Canal,” and vowed to take it back. The Chinese government, meanwhile, threatened to cripple Li’s business interests if he went forward with a plan to sell his Panama Canal operations to a consortium led by BlackRock.
In 2023 and 2024, Berkeley reported receiving $50,000 from Sky9 Capital Fund V in the Cayman Islands. Sky9 Capital, a China-focused venture capital fund, has financed ByteDance, TikTok, Meituan, and other companies closely associated with the CCP.
Syngenta, a Chinese state-owned company, donated $21,000 to Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources in 2022. The university listed the money as coming from Switzerland, where Syngenta is headquartered.
A spokesman for Berkeley declined to comment on the specific donations. He said the university is “reviewing the Department of Education inquiry and will cooperate with its federal partners as has long been our practice. The university prioritizes direct communications with legislative committees and governmental agencies when responding to their questions and inquiries.”
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
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