Rubio presses the opening of the sanctions investigation at Harvard University

Foreign Minister Marco Rubio pressures the investigation whether Harvard University has violated federal sanctions by cooperation in the China Health Insurance Conference may have included officials in the blacklist by the United States government, according to persons familiar with the issue and documents reviewed by the New York Times.

Mr. Rubio signed a recommendation to the Treasury last month to open an investigation, which experts and former treasury officials said was an extraordinary attempt by the Minister of Ministers to target a local entity to enforce the sanctions.

Whether the agency within the Treasury Department that deals with the sanctions, the foreign asset control office has opened an investigation that was not clear – but this step can submit Harvard to significant legal risks. The work of Mr. Rubio is the latest example of the Trump administration’s entire approach to bringing IVY League University to the heel.

President Trump sought for several months to impose his political agenda on Harvard by reshaping its curriculum, acceptance and employment. This effort initially relied on accusations that university officials did not do enough to address anti -Semitism on the campus. However, in recent weeks, the administration’s focus has expanded to other issues, including allegations related to Harvard’s foreign relations, especially China.

The investigation of possible penalties explains how Harvard’s problems with the government extend beyond issues whether the school will continue to receive federal financing. Mr. Trump and his allies seem to be determined to increase almost all aspects of the Foundation, which has long symbolizes the country’s high education summit and attracting influential scientists from all over the world.

A Treasury spokesman said that the agency takes any allegations of sanctions violations “seriously”, but it refused to comment on the possible or suspended investigation. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to comment.

The Health Insurance Conference, known as the Health Finance Training Course, began in 2019 as a joint project between Harvard, the World Bank and the National Health Insurance Department, and the arm of the Chinese government that oversees the state -backed health care system, according to the university’s website. Over the years, training focused on topics such as “Ways to pay the innovative providerAnd “and”Pricing and paying the health of the Internet“

The university promoted this event, which in a few years has attracted more than 200 people, as a major part of the “Harvard Health Partnership” wider inside the Chan Public Health School. University officials have previously described this event as aiming to expand access to high -quality health care for 1.4 billion people in China.

Behind the penalties of Mr. Rubio, there are officials from a Chinese group run by the state called the Chengyang Production and Building Corps at some conferences, if not all, since 2019. XPCC is known in northwestern China as building towns and operating university systems and their hospitals. The group is also responsible for Systematic human rights violations against Uighurs And other ethnic minorities in the region, according to the American government.

The Chinese government formed XPCC more than seven decades ago as a paramilitary organization charged with settling a distant area with many ethnic groups and some militias. The Ministry of Treasury imposed sanctions on the group in 2020.

Harvard University is conducting an internal review of XPCC’s participation at the conference, but it was not clear what details appeared, according to two people, with the realization of the investigation that insisted on not disclosing his identity to discuss internal university deliberations.

Harvard spokesman declined to comment.

and An archived copy of the Harvard University website The opening conference indicated that the training participants included Xinjiang Production and Building Corps. This event happened one year before the United States government targeted the group of sanctions, but his XPCC mentioned Since deleted it.

A Chinese government site on the 2023 conference shows that the participants of that year – three years after the United States imposed sanctions on XPCC – included Chinese health officials and scientists from “high universities”, such as Harvard, Representatives of the Chengiang Production and Building Corps.

However, XPCC’s participation in the conference only gained attention from Trump’s allies, then Report on Harvard links in China Posted on April 22 by Strategy Risks, a New York -based intelligence company specializing in companies exposure to China. The report was funded by the Manhattan Institute, a governor’s research reservoir who advised republican policy makers.

Since then, the details of the report have been highlighted in news articles from the conservative media and public data from Republican officials.

On May 15, Senator Tom Couton of Arkansas was martyred in the strategic risk report in A. Message to Mr. Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott PayetteThe investigation of the Harvard University’s Public Health College. On May 19, Republicans were sent to the Parliament Education Committee Request for records to Harvard About, partially, XPCC sharing in the conference.

On May 22, The Ministry of Internal Security said Harvard had members of “hosted and training” in the group and listed a link to the Fox News article about the request of the Republican records in the House of Representatives in his press statement.

Investigations in potential penalties may take months or years, while sanctions range from a warning letter from the government to significant financial damage.

Other cabinet secretaries – such as the Foreign Minister – are often coordinated with the Minister of Treasury for individuals, groups or foreign countries that they believe should be subject to sanctions. But it is not customary for the country’s diplomats to release an individual, group or company for a possible violation, according to John Smith, the former director of the foreign asset office of the Ministry of Treasury.

Mr. Smith said that the sanctions investigations are usually operated after reporting in the media, companies, intelligence community or law enforcement.

Mr. Smith said: “I will not say that it is wrong or inappropriate – I would like to say it is unusual and not the course of the usual business.”

Usually, after learning a possible violation, the foreign asset control office decides whether the investigation will be opened. If the office ultimately finds violations, the Ministry of Treasury may impose civil sanctions and recommend that the Ministry of Justice follow the criminal charges. In particular, companies can be hit by civil and criminal penalties that come with fines of billions of dollars.

Harvard University has encountered two months turbulent since Mr. Trump put his attention at school. In some respects, Harvard University has been victims of its success, which lasted for years to expand its global influence, which suddenly crashed into the national motives that feed the agenda of Mr. Trump “America first”.

Several Harvard’s attempts in China recently started relatively, when Washington participated with Beijing as a strategic and economic partner. China is now widely seen as an opponent, which is an acceleration transformation during the first administration of Mr. Trump.

Harvard University filed a preliminary lawsuit against the administration in April, accusing the government attempt to confirm the school’s control of threats to reduce federal financing. By that time, the Trump administration has already prevented $ 2.2 billion in various grants. Since the lawsuit was filed, the university and its research partners have lost approximately $ 1.5 billion to support the National Institutes of Health, the Ministry of Defense and other federal agencies.

The university is also fighting in court about the effort of Mr. Trump and the Internal Security Department to cancel visas from Harvard International University students, who represent about a quarter of the Student Authority, and ban them from the country. Harvard University has been targeted through additional investigations by the Ministry of Education, the Employment Opportunities Committee, the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services and the Ministry of Justice.

Isaac Stone Fish, founder and chief executive of strategic risks, said he started his company in 2021 after working as a journalist in Beijing. In 2022, he published a book entitled “The Second America”, following the recent transition of the relationship of the United States of China, from economic partners to open competitors.

Mr. Stone Fish said that his report, which the conservatives cited, should not be read as a “comprehensive condemnation” of Harvard. He praised the university to apply for what he described as decisive research and scholarships in China. But he also argued that XPCC was “one of the most famous organizations in the world” and that university partnerships should be held at a high level.

The Minister of Education, Linda McMahon, spoke to the Bloomberg news event in Washington on Tuesday, defended the administration’s punishment at Harvard University and said it is a way to change ideological tilt that she considers hostile to the conservatives.

It was suspended to summarize the management successes so far in its battle with Harvard University, indicating the departure of faculty members in March from the University’s Middle East Studies Center.

“We have noticed that they replaced the head of the Middle East studies because they felt that they needed to make some adjustments there,” said Mrs. McMahon. “So we are pleased to see that.”

All federal funding operations for Harvard – and eight of 10 federal investigations at the university – have occurred – since the professors left the campus.