US News June 2025 - When Elite Institutions Serve Foreign Interests: Media Bias and the Harvard-China Connection

Two salutes—one of peace and one a NAZI —and yet the media responds with a blatant double standard. What else can be concluded? If you read the Booker response , his credibility suffers from how loudly he protests.

"Cory Booker was obviously just waving to the crowd. Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk 's gesture is operating in bad faith," Maya Krishna-Rogers,

spokesperson for Booker, told Newsweek in an emailed statement Sunday. "The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda." At least some people try to reason. But ideologues are hard to reason with.

The Harvard elites—given the University's status as an elite institution—raise the question: are they operating in isolation from the law or their obligations to the United States? While admissions may be driven by financial motives, consider the current U.S.–China trade war. A handful of Harvard lawyers in an international working group might well find solutions—yet are we simply transferring secrets instead? For decades, the party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to pursue executive training and postgraduate studies on U.S. campuses, with Harvard University a coveted destination described by some in China as the top “party school” outside the country.

Alumni of such programs include a former vice president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top negotiator in trade talks with the first Trump administration.

At the center of this evolving issue is He, Xi’s economic gatekeeper , who has made it clear that China’s strategy in the trade war has shifted from what it was during Trump’s first term. Perhaps it’s time to rethink our entire educational model— with national interests at its core —not just the financial interests of the institution.