{"id":427144,"date":"2026-08-08T06:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427144\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:12:21","slug":"uc-berkeley-disputes-224m-chinese-funding-claim-by-department-of-education-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427144\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley disputes $224M Chinese funding claim by Department of Education | Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UC Berkeley is disputing a claim from the U.S. Department of Education that it had received $224.5 million in gifts and contracts from Chinese sources over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>The Education Department published a dashboard earlier this year tracking Section 117 reports of foreign funding from \u201ccountries of concern,\u201d including China.<\/p>\n<p>UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said in an email that campus believes the data in the Education Department\u2019s dashboard \u201c(does) not provide an accurate reflection of our current international academic partnerships.\u201d Mogulof added that campus is currently evaluating the department\u2019s data against its internal records.<\/p>\n<p>UC Berkeley submitted its biannual Section 117-compliant report of foreign funding last week, reporting no contracts and $4.5 million in gifts from Chinese sources, according to Mogulof. The Department of Education claims UC Berkeley has received $229 million in total funding from Chinese sources as of press time.<\/p>\n<p>The dashboard tracks foreign gift and contract reporting under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. Section 117 requires institutions participating in federal student aid programs to disclose all gifts and contracts from foreign sources valued at more than $250,000.<\/p>\n<p>UC Berkeley has faced scrutiny over its relationships with Chinese institutions in the past. In 2024, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released findings alleging UC Berkeley was one of several institutions contributing to China\u2019s technological and military advancements through shared research.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, UC Berkeley ended its decade-long relationship with Tsinghua University, and is no longer affiliated with the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute. According to Mogulof, $34 million in funding received by UC Berkeley is associated with the institute.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2025, the Department of Education announced another investigation, citing potential \u201cincomplete or inaccurate\u201d reports of foreign funding by UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cOver the course of the last two years, UC Berkeley has been cooperating with federal inquiries regarding (Section) 117 reporting issues, and we will continue to do so,\u201d Mogulof said following the announcement of the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/news\/campus\/department-of-education-launches-investigation-into-uc-berkeley-alleging-failure-to-properly-disclose-foreign-funding\/article_66b1c08a-c7da-4a6d-b1e6-ae07b0acf31f.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">investigation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mogulof said the Education Department investigation remains open.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon released a letter Monday asking every postsecondary institution in the country to address a series of questions, including how universities will protect their academic programs from foreign influence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUniversity leaders must ensure that the research enterprise is oriented toward advancing the U.S. national interest\u2014not our adversaries\u2019\u2014by refusing gifts with problematic conditions and ensuring that foreign actors do not unduly influence academic programming, research personnel, researcher assignments, or student admissions,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n<p>The Education Department plans to release \u201cthe names of all foreign sources from prior reporting cycles\u201d Wednesday, according to the Section 117 data dashboard. However, previous plans to release the information have been repeatedly delayed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe release of donor entities poses safety and security risks,\u201d said UC Office of the President spokesperson Rachel Zaentz in an email. \u201cThe Department has repeatedly promised that certain donor information would not be publicly disclosed, a promise that has factored into donor decisions based on requests for anonymity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McMahon\u2019s call to action also asks universities to respond to questions regarding admissions, free speech on campus, cost of education, national security, transparency and other academic affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley is disputing a claim from the U.S. Department of Education that it had received $224.5 million&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3573,14760,19442,170168,41245,143,145,144,38371,78532,148352,78536],"class_list":["post-427144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-china","tag-dan-mogulof","tag-department-of-education","tag-higher-education-act","tag-linda-mcmahon","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-rachel-zaentz","tag-section-117","tag-tsinghua-university","tag-tsinghua-berkeley-shenzhen-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}