Qatar Spent $6 Billion on U.S. Universities, Lobbying Government

Qatar has spent nearly $6 billion since 2007 on U.S. universities and lobbying the government, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.

The country has given more than $5.6 billion to 61 U.S. schools, including Ivy League universities, while $243 million has been spent on lobbying efforts.

Such efforts have likely contributed to the rise of antisemitic sentiments across universities.

Research director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Jonathan Schanzer told the outlet, “The amount of money that Qatar has invested in its influence operations in Washington over the last two decades is simply staggering,” adding, “It’s even more staggering when one stops to consider that the country has a mere 330,000 citizens. What does a country this tiny want with so much influence?”

FDD noted that Qatar is a “major Hamas financier” and has given an estimated $1.8 billion to Gaza since 2007.

The Free Beacon added that Qatar has also spend millions on lobbying the U.S. government. Between 2020 to 2022, the country spend more than $130 million on lobbying efforts.

China has also provided millions of dollars to U.S. schools and universities.

For example, Stanford University has received over $27 million from Chinese sources since 2021.

In September 2023, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Congressman Dave Joyce (R-OH), and Congressman Ed Case (D-HI) intoduced the the Combatting the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems (CLASS) Act as a direct response to revelations concerning contracts for “Confucius Classrooms” across American schools.

“American students are being force fed Chinese Communist Party propaganda as school systems nationwide accept significant funding from CCP linked financial institutions,” Stefanik said.

Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, stated that China’s infiltration into American K-12 schools is “almost everywhere.”

“While we were working on the Confucius Institutes, we gained some knowledge of the junior version of Confucius Institutes, Confucius Classrooms, which were being spotted in American K-12 education around the country, oftentimes at the sorts of schools that were feeders to elite colleges and universities,” he continued.