Report accuses President Biden’s Penn State think-tank of accepting large Chinese donations

A new report released this week by the Washington Free Beacon accuses President Biden’s Pennsylvania State University think tank, the Penn Biden Center, has accepted millions of dollars in donations from donors in China since it opened in 2017.

The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement is located in Washington, DC, but is owned and funded by Penn State.

According to the report by the Free Beacon, which was
published on Wednesday, the university has accepted “$51 million in foreign funding, including $14 million from unnamed contributors in China and Hong Kong and $2.4 million from unnamed contributors in Saudi Arabia,” since 2021, in addition to over $60 million received since the think tank’s doors opened in 2017 after Biden left the Obama White House.

The Department of Education records obtained by the Free Beacon do not disclose the names of the Chinese donors, and Penn State has said none of the reported donations from China
were funneled to the Penn Biden Center.

“One hundred percent of the budget for the Penn Biden Center comes from university funds,” said a Penn State spokesperson. “Any foreign gifts received by the university are all properly reported to the U.S. Department of Education as required by Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. Penn is fully compliant with federal law regarding the reporting of foreign gifts and contracts.”

The Penn Biden Center came under scrutiny in recent weeks after it was revealed that ten classified federal documents were found in Biden’s private office at the facility, along with handfuls of others found at other locations at Biden’s Delaware residence.

The Department of Justice has appointed a Special Counsel to investigate whether the documents were mishandled, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has requested visitor logs for the Penn Biden Center in order to determine whether the documents were ever in danger of being accessed by anyone.