China conducts extensive operations to influence foreign countries, including techniques to permeate American institutions, according to a classified CIA report, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.
The CIA specifically warns about attempts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to stipulate funding to universities and policy institutes in exchange for academic censorship, according to an unclassified page of the report obtained by the Free Beacon.
"The CCP often denies visas to academics who criticize the regime, encouraging many China scholars to pre-emptively self-censor so they can maintain access to the country on which their research depends," the report states.
It also accuses the CCP of providing funding to academic institutions and think tanks in order to "deter research that casts it in a negative light . . . [using] this tactic to reward pro-China viewpoints and coerce Western academic publications and conferences to self-censor."
The revelation of the report comes following last month's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee by FBI Director Christopher Wray that the bureau is investigating dozens of Chinese-backed Confucius Institutes hosted by more than 100 universities throughout the U.S for their potential to be used as a spying tool.
These cultural centers are managed by a division of the Chinese Ministry of Education and are an integral part of Beijing's $10 billion a year foreign propaganda campaign.
Sen. Marco Rubio, who co-chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, last month asked five schools in his state to close down these institutes, according to the Washington Examiner.
The Florida Republican said the Chinese government uses the programs to limit discussion on topics it finds sensitive, such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the political status of Tibet.
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