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46 the foundation’s official advisors and the foundation’s easy connections with Chinese government organs belie the foundation’s assertion that it is independent of the Chinese Communist Party and the PRC government. CUSEF undertakes a range of programs aimed at Americans that can accurately be described as “influence-seeking activities”; as such, it has registered in the United States under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). Its lobbying activities include sponsoring all-expense-paid tours of China for delegations composed of what the foundation’s website refers to as “thought leaders,” including journalists and editors, think-tank specialists, and city and state officials.*? CUSEF has not often collaborated with American universities and think tanks, but it recently offered funding to the University of Texas at Austin for its China Public Policy Center. However, after receiving criticism from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others, the university declined the grant.¥ CUSEF grants have generally gone to leading US think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Asia Society. There have not yet been many offers by Chinese donors—private, corporate, or government—to fund faculty positions or centers for Chinese studies on US campuses, although many universities are believed to be seeking such gifts. In one instance in 2014, a leading Washington, DC, university was approached by a Chinese university with a proposal for a $500,000 annual grant to establish a Center for Chinese studies in partnership with the Chinese university.** The Chinese side had three main conditions for the grant: (1) that a series of Chinese officials and other visitors would be given public platforms for frequent speeches; (2) that faculty from the Chinese partner university could teach China courses on the US university campus; and (3) that new Chinese Studies courses would be added to the university curriculum. The Washington-based university turned down the lucrative offer, on the advice of its Chinese studies faculty. In August 2017, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) announced that it had received a substantial gift from CUSEF for an endowed junior faculty position, as well as program funding for a “Pacific Community Initiative.” SAIS administrators stated that there were no political or other strings attached to these grants, despite media insinuations to the contrary.* At Yale Law School, the China Law Center founded in 1999 was renamed the Paul Tsai China Center after receiving a $30 million endowment from Joseph C. Tsai, a Taiwanese Canadian billionaire who is a cofounder and executive vice chairman of the China-based Alibaba Group.* Tsai, an alumnus of Yale College and Yale Law School, made the gift in honor of his father, also an alumnus of Yale Law School. China is not the only authoritarian government that has given or facilitated gifts to American academic institutions or think tanks, but it is the wealthiest. There is no evidence so far that any of these gifts has compromised the independence of the recipient institution. But the trend toward large gifts from Chinese sources, Universities HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020505