Report on China ties US higher-ed research funding

In the wake of efforts to require colleges and universities to report foreign sources of grant funding, it is becoming harder to identify money being routed through partnerships and organizations connected to Chinese interests or the Chinese government, researchers have found. The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) at Rutgers University, in a report released Wednesday titled "Beijing's Dark Money Pipeline," said "the public debate over foreign influence in higher education has focused almost exclusively on direct foreign gifts and contracts." Current disclosure frameworks emphasize reporting under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, but "a growing portion of China-linked university funding does not operate through that model," the report said. Instead, funds move through domestic nonprofits "that appear American under existing reporting rules." "Once funding enters this system, the foreign relationships become substantially harder to identify--not because they are...