A new Department of Education site, foreignfundinghighered.gov, lists total disclosed amounts by country of foreign money given to American universities.
The portal seems to report only total contributions to date (“all time”) by each country as well as the totals to date that particular universities have received by gift or contract from each country. It does not also report amounts given or received in particular years.
Hamas sponsor Qatar leads the pack with $6,572,557,546 of total funding to U.S. institutions of higher learning. Germany and England, ranked second and third, each gave more than $4 billion. China-minus-Hong-Kong gave around $4.1 billion, and Hong Kong gave around $1.9 billion.
The portal also indicates sources of the foreign funding of universities that have received the most largesse. Harvard has disclosed receiving $321.6 million from China and $268.7 million from Hong Kong. Yale has received $248.2 million from Hong Kong and $130.5 million from China. Cornell has received $76.8 million from Hong Kong and $59.3 million from China. (And $2.3 billion from Qatar? Cornell has actually gotten more like $10 billion from Qatar, according to a November 2025 New York Post article.)
As noted in a press release from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, although the People’s Republic of China is listed as the fourth-largest contributor to American institutions of higher learning, it is in fact the second-largest, having contributed more than $6 billion. Hong Kong has been part of China since the handover of 1997 but was supposed to be allowed to retain its own system of government for half a century. The Chinese Communist Party never intended to keep that promise. And any rationale for regarding Hong Kong as politically independent of the mainland collapsed after the party-state’s massive crackdown on Hong Kong democracy and freedom in 2020.
Contributions from the People’s Republic of China are a cause for concern in a way that those from Canada ($4 billion) or Switzerland ($3.4 billion) or Japan ($3.4 billion) are not. China is a relentless major enemy of the United States that uses its academic presence and collaborations in the U.S. to conduct influence operations and espionage, steal intellectual property, and bolster its military might and other nefariously deployed capabilities.
Also see:
State.gov: “The Chinese Communist Party on Campus: Opportunities & Risks”
“Encouraging Chinese Students to Learn Overseas…but Controlling their Actions…. Spreading Chinese Culture Abroad…while Restricting Academic Freedom…. Diverting Intellectual Property to Support China’s Rise…and Hurting U.S. Institutions…. Recruiting Chinese and Foreign Academics…with Big Strings Attached….”
