Senate Foreign Relations hearing spotlights Chinese 'malign influence' across universities, media, supply chains and developing countries

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened a policy hearing on PRC malign influence at home and abroad, bringing a bipartisan panel of witnesses who described a broad, multifaceted campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to shape institutions, science, communications platforms and foreign governments.

Chairman Risch opened the hearing saying the committee intended to “focus on the greatest long term threat to The United States, that being China,” and called for policy measures to close loopholes in lobbying, reform visa screening, and equip State to counter malign influence.

Experts and academics who testified described the threat in specific terms. Peter Mattis, president of the Jamestown Foundation, said the CCP’s influence activities are organized through an expansive “United Front” system that “keeps extending outward” to recruit and mobilize people and institutions to act on the party’s behalf. “United front is also a way of looking at politics,” Mattis said, warning the system targets civil-society groups, universities, media and local leaders and can “undermine the very functioning of institutions.”

Jeffrey Stoff, founder of the Center for Research Security and Integrity, told the committee U.S. universities and research institutions are particularly vulnerable because many elements of fundamental research fall outside export controls. He said failures to disclose PRC funding on federal grants, and the incentives universities face to accept foreign money, have exposed large volumes of scientific collaboration that he described as providing “profound effects on…