{shortcode-9d16503572d347d3a67b7caa71279263cada210c}
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged the Treasury Department to open an investigation into whether Harvard violated federal sanctions laws by cosponsoring a health policy conference in China that may have included blacklisted Chinese officials, The New York Times reported Wednesday morning.
The conference — part of the “Training Course on Health Financing” — was jointly organized by the Harvard School of Public Health, the World Bank, and China’s National Healthcare Security Administration. The event has drawn more than 200 participants in recent years and is part of Harvard’s China Health Partnership, a longstanding academic collaboration.
Rubio signed off on a formal recommendation to the Treasury last month, according to the Times, asking the department to determine whether Harvard’s involvement may have violated sanctions on the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese government-affiliated entity sanctioned by the U.S. in 2020 for human rights abuses against Uyghurs.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control — the agency in the Treasury responsible for sanctions — has not confirmed whether it has opened an investigation.
A Treasury Department spokesperson wrote that “we take any allegations of sanctions violations extremely seriously” but declined to comment on Rubio’s recommendation.
“As a matter of longstanding policy, Treasury does not comment on possible or pending investigations,” the spokesperson wrote.
A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the relationship between the conference and the X.P.C.C. or if it had received notice of a formal Treasury Department investigation.
An archived version of the School of Public Health’s website listed the XPCC. as a participant in the conference’s 2019 session, but that listing has since been removed. XPCC officials were present again in 2023 and 2024 — years after the group was sanctioned by the U.S.
Over the past four years, the conference has included programming on topics like the governance of health purchasing organizations and health technology assessments. The conference has also often headlined speakers from Harvard, leading universities in China, and officials from the Chinese government.
It is unclear what level of involvement XPCC officials had in the event. According to the Times, which cited two unnamed sources, Harvard has opened an internal review into the conference and its guest list.
The push for scrutiny appears to have been fueled in part by a late April report from Strategy Risks, a corporate intelligence firm led by journalist Isaac Stone Fish. The report, which was funded by the conservative Manhattan Institute, detailed Harvard’s involvement in the conference and has since been cited by Republican lawmakers and federal agencies. A second report about the conference was published by conservative news outlet Free Beacon in late April detailing participation from XPCC officials in 2023 and 2024.
Following the release of the Strategy Risk report, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) cited its findings in a May 15 letter to Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging an investigation, according to the Times. Days later, Republicans on the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a records request to Harvard seeking information on the conference and its participants. The committee demanded that Harvard turn over all documents by June 2.
A spokesperson for the committee did not respond to a request for comment on whether Harvard had complied.
The Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on whether it had submitted all requested records or if the University had launched an internal review into the conference.
And on May 22, the Department of Homeland Security indirectly referenced the report in a press release announcing that it had revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, accusing the University of having “hosted and trained” members of the X.P.C.C.
If the OFAC proceeds with a formal investigation, the process could take months or even years to resolve. Any penalties could range from a warning letter to multimillion-dollar fines, depending on whether the agency determines the University knowingly violated sanctions laws.
The sanctions controversy comes amid a broader, months-long campaign by the Trump administration to pressure Harvard through legal, financial, and political means. Since the current administration took office, Harvard has been the subject of at least 11 federal investigations, including inquiries by the the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as congressional probes.
Federal agencies have also cut nearly $3 billion in research funding and grants to the University, including support from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
In April, the University filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing the administration of violating constitutional protections and rejecting allegations that it had failed to address antisemitism on campus.
But since then, the White House has broadened its attacks on Harvard, increasingly pointing to Harvard’s partnerships in China as evidence of compromised academic independence and national security risks.
In his now-blocked proclamation from last Wednesday barring international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard, President Donald Trump accused Harvard of “extensive entanglement” with China, citing the conference and the $151 million the University received from foreign governments since 2020.
The Trump administration has also taken a direct aim at Chinese students on campus. In late May, Rubio announced that the DHS would move to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students” studying in “critical fields” or with ties to the CCP — though that plan seems to have been put on pause after Trump struck a tariff deal with China.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
