WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-Idaho), today led their colleagues in expressing serious concern about Chinese student associations being used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to gain influence on American campuses. The senators are urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine whether Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for their work on behalf of the CCP. 

Grassley has actively worked to expose foreign adversaries’ influence campaigns. He conducted extensive oversight of the CCP’s use of Confucius Institutes to suppress free speech in American academia while proliferating CCP propaganda, and has introduced legislation to neutralize their sway. Grassley has also spearheaded bipartisan legislation to reform and strengthen FARA, shore up FARA from judicial misreading and ensure foreign agents cannot exploit loopholes to conceal their work. Grassley has also led similar efforts to require U.S. think tanks to transparently disclose their foreign links.

“There are currently 150 known CSSA chapters on American campuses. These organizations purport to ‘support’ Chinese students overseas, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has shown they often serve as extensions of China’s party-state,” the senators wrote. 

“They ‘can be co-opted into foreign government appendages’ that intimidate and monitor Chinese overseas students while shaping favorable public perceptions of Beijing foreign policies,” the senators continued. “Of particular concern are the Chinese government’s efforts to ‘infringe on the academic freedom and personal safety’ of persons at American universities. Some CSSAs receive guidance and funding from, and routinely coordinate with, Chinese consulates in the United States, while attempting to conceal these government ties.” 

“…The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires individuals to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) if they act at the behest of a foreign principal to influence U.S. policy or public opinion. There is clear evidence that CSSAs act as an arm of the PRC for the purpose of shaping U.S. policy and public opinion, and the United States should therefore evaluate whether they are required to register as foreign agents,” the senators concluded. 

In addition to Grassley, Scott and Risch, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) signed the letter.

Read the full letter HERE. 

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