The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League institution which collected tens of millions of dollars from China while paying Joe Biden and hosting his foreign policy think tank, successfully pressured the Biden Justice Department to end an FBI counterespionage program targeting Beijing’s increasing influence within U.S. academia.
Attorney General Merrick Garland shut down the FBI’s so-called China initiative in February 2022 shortly after more than 160 members of the University of Pennsylvania faculty signed and made public an open letter demanding the program be shuttered, on the grounds that it amounted to racial profiling. The faculty letter was part of a larger university battle against the program.
“We acknowledge the importance to the United States of protecting both intellectual property and information that is essential to our national and economic security,” read the letter made public on Feb. 9. “We understand that concerns about Chinese government sanctioned activities including intellectual property theft and economic espionage are important to address.