Trump threatens to cut $1B in health research funding to "punish" Harvard U

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to cut another $1 billion in funding for Harvard University, this time targeting health research, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, as the administration's row with elite schools escalated.

The Trump administration has withheld government funding from Harvard, Columbia and other universities in response to their tolerance of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in what the administration has labeled a failure to control antisemitism on campus.


Harvard pushed back last week, rejecting demands for control of its student body, faculty and curriculum, saying that would cede control of the university to government.

Within hours of Harvard taking its stand, the administration announced it was freezing $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school and the next day threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported the plans to pull an additional $1 billion in research funds arose after administration officials thought a long list of demands they sent Harvard on April 11 was a confidential starting point for negotiations, and officials were surprised when Harvard released the letter to the public.

Trump officials had been planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia but now want to increase the pressure on Harvard, the Journal reported.

The White House and Harvard did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday.

Since his January inauguration, Trump has cracked down on top U.S. universities, saying they mishandled last year's pro-Palestinian protests and allowed antisemitism to intensify on campus. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say their criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.



The administration had previously sent a list of demands on April 3 to Harvard for the Ivy League university to continue receiving federal funding. These included a mask ban, removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and more cooperation with law enforcement.

The April 11 letter, signed by officials at the Education Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the General Services Administration, expanded that list. It told Harvard to stop recognizing some pro-Palestinian groups and asked it to report to federal authorities foreign students violating university policies, among other demands.

Trump threatens to cut another $1 billion in Harvard funding, WSJ reports

40micmic said:

Harvard may have committed a sanctions violation by training a Chinese paramilitary organization responsible for genocide in Xinjiang. This has not been previously reported. What happened? How did Harvard get here? Thread below.

https://x.com/isaacstonefish/status/1914686919428002145

Report: Beijing Exercises Strong Influence Over Multiple Areas of Harvard University - Strategy Risks

The Communist Party of China, through partnerships and collaborations, influences Harvard University to sometimes promote Beijing’s policy agenda. The below report by Strategy Risks raises doubts about Harvard’s effectiveness in limiting the Party’s authoritarian influences. To access the full...

strategyrisks.com

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Harvard trained them in healthcare insurance administration. Hardly participating in genocide.

40micmic said:

The report goes into great detail about links between PRC and Harvard. Specifically the Chan family and its signifigant donation toe the harvard public health school. I mean training a paramilitary organization (that is sanctioned by the U.S) for its human rights abuses in Xinjiang is definitely not a good look

The full report is only like 10 pages but read the entire document to connect some of the dots. Here are a few key excerpts.

The Chan family and its Morningside Foundation gave $350 million to the Harvard Public Health School in September 2014, and Harvard renamed the school the Harvard T. Chan School for Public Health (Chan School) in their honor.1

CPC infuence touches Harvard in a myriad of ways. In 2023, the Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber was sentenced to prison for making false statements about money hereceived from the ThousandTalents Plan—part of a major CPC strategy to recruit human capital and appropriate foreign knowledge
and technology. Harvard faculty also collaborate with PRC scholars on projects involving advanced technologies. Some of those PRC scholars have ties to the PRC’s military-industrial complex. CPC-controlled student associations and PRC individuals participate in the policing and intimidation of PRC students, some of them members of ethnic and other social groups persecuted in the PRC. In at least one case, the Harvard T. Chan School for Health glorifed an aspect of the Cultural Revolution, a “Barefoot Doctors” medical program which contributed to the early deaths of thousands of people in
China from 1966-1976.

In 2018, the Chan School formalized partnerships with seven PRC institutions through the Harvard China Health Partnership (HCHP).1415

The HCHP trains CPC officials. In November 2022, the HCHP hosted 188 senior national and provincial PRC ofcials for training on healthcare fnancing.16 XPCC ofcials attended training sessions at the 2019 and 2023 joint Harvard and National Healthcare Security Administration Training Course
on Health Financing, according to Harvard and the NHSA.

XPCC is a state-run economic and paramilitary organization under the direct control of the Chinese central government. The XPCC implements the CPC’s policies in Xinjiang. These policies include the incarceration and forced labor of several ethnic groups, especially Uyghurs. In 2020, the U.S. government sanctioned the XPCC and several of its leading ofcials due to their links to human-rights abuses.The XPCC is also sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act, which restricts the ability of U.S. persons to engage with the XPCC.

Depending on what was discussed in the meetings between Harvard and the XPCC, and whether Harvard may have received permission from the U.S. government beforehand, Harvard’s engagement with the XPCC may have been a sanctions violation. At the very least, it raises important questionsabout Harvard’s judgement, and Harvard’s compliance programs.

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But again, if you're training these people in something harmless like health insurance admin, how are you complicit in the bad shit their organizations do in their home countries?