Biden withdraws from Trump-era policy to track Chinese influence in American schools

The rule requires American schools and universities to disclose their partnerships with Confucius Institutes, which allegedly are front groups for Chinese Communist Party propaganda according to some US officials.

Washington: The Biden administration has withdrawn from Trump's policy on tracking Chinese influence in US schools and universities, reported Daily Caller.

Chuck Ross, writing for the publication, informed that the Biden administration has quietly withdrawn from the proposed rule to the Department of Homeland Security on December 31, 2020, entitled "Establishing Requirement for Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certified Schools to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms."

The rule requires American schools and universities to disclose their partnerships with Confucius Institutes, which allegedly are front groups for Chinese Communist Party propaganda according to some US officials.

As per Daily Caller, around 500 K-12 schools and 65 colleges have a partnership with Confucius Institute US Center, a US-based affiliate of the Beijing-based Confucius Institute Headquarters. The institute, also known as Hanban, is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Earlier, the Daily Caller had reported that many of Hanban's directors were members of the Chinese Communist Party.

READ: US closely monitoring situation along India-China border: Official

As per the information at RegInfo.gov, the website for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which operates under the Office of Management and Budget and the White House, the Biden administration has withdrawn from the consideration on January 26.

Meanwhile, the OIRA website has not provided any other information about the move.

Also, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of DHS, confirmed the withdrawal of the rule.

The spokesperson did not elaborate on the reason for withdrawing the rule and declined to speculate on whether the Biden administration will re-submit it.

"ICE does not speculate about future pre-decisional proposed rules or policies," the spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

In August, the Trump administration had labelled the Confucius Institutes US Center a "foreign mission" of the Chinese Communist Party.

The officials too had said that the Chinese government used the Confucius Institutes as part of its propaganda and influence efforts in the US.

Trump administration's, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo too had said on August 13 that the Confucius Institute was "an entity controlled by the PRC that advances Beijing's global propaganda and malign influence campaign on US campuses and K-12 classrooms."

The Confucius Institute US is yet to comment on the issue.

(ANI)