by Staff Reporter | Oct 29, 2025 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is the latest in the state to drop its program with a Chinese university over national security concerns.
House committees on the Chinese Community Party and Education and the Workforce released a report last month flagging security concerns within NAU’s partnership with a Chinese municipal public university, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications (CQUPT).
The report outlined the main pathways by which China manipulates the American university system to benefit its military interests.
“What once came through Confucius Institutes now flows through new channels — less visible but no less strategic,” stated the report. “The Select Committee is now actively investigating these additional CCP activities — including the China Scholarship Counsel and student visa pathways — which, combined with joint institutes, illustrate a coordinated strategy by the CCP: leverage American institutions to train PRC talent, absorb U.S. research, and convert that knowledge into military and economic advantage. Joint institutes are just one vector — the problem is systemic.”
Rep. Eli Crane commended NAU for shutting down the program following the report’s publication.
“I applaud Northern Arizona University’s leadership in reviewing its international partnerships and ensuring that its programs align with national security initiatives,” said Crane in a press release on Monday. “NAU’s actions reflect a responsible approach to protecting students, faculty, and the integrity of U.S. research and education. We greatly appreciate their commitment to these shared values, as well as all they do for Northern Arizona.”
The CQUPT program was a 3+1 dual-degree program in Electrical Engineering.
Full withdrawal will occur within 90 days, per Crane’s press release.
NAU’s program was one of over 50 university partnerships the congressional committees deemed “high-risk” for their involvement with universities guided by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military and defense interests. The congressional committees disclose that the list is not all-inclusive and that more may exist.
The University of Arizona (U of A) had two programs included in the congressional report that were deemed high risk: one with the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and the other with the Arizona College of Technology (ACT) at Hebei University of Technology (HUT).
The HIT program is one of three joint programs that American universities launched with one of China’s Seven Sons of National Defense (SSND) universities.
Only universities selected by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to advance China’s military and defense research qualify as SSND.
Although the report declared the HIT partnership to be active, U of A has stated it terminated its partnership in December 2023.
The committees also determined the University of Arizona’s Arizona College of Technology at Hebei University of Technology.
Last month, U of A faculty were advised that Chinese microcampuses would be closed following congressional advice on national security concerns with the partnerships.
U of A issued a notice on its Research and Partnerships page last December that SSND posed “atypical security risks and concerns about misuse of research for military purposes” due to their being controlled by CCP’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
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by Matthew Holloway | Oct 5, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
An investigative report released last week revealed that Arizona’s Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs accepted a campaign donation from Pin Ni, a Chinese Communist Party member and board director at major automotive parts maker Wanxiang Group.
According to the report, the donation appears to have been made after Hobbs vetoed one piece of legislation that would have pushed Chinese influence out of Arizona’s prominent healthcare and research base and another piece of legilslation that would have banned the Chinese Government from owning land in the state.
Michael Lucci, founder of State Armor, a national security group, told the Washington Examiner in a statement Tuesday, “State Armor respectfully calls upon Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to partner with the Arizona legislature to oppose America’s adversaries instead of opposing the legislature’s attempts to protect Arizona from Communist China.”
He added, “In the last two years, Governor Hobbs has vetoed more legislation to protect her state from the CCP than any other governor in the country, including common-sense legislation to protect Arizona land and Arizonan genetic information from China’s military. So it is disappointing but not shocking to see Gov. Hobbs takes political money from CCP-tied billionaires.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, Hobbs has already fallen under heavy criticism from Republican lawmakers following her veto of HB 2542, which would have blocked corporations with ties to the People’s Republic of China from securing contracts with the State of Arizona. She also vetoed SB 1109, a bill that would have specifically targeted Chinese purchases of land in Arizona, but approved Senate Bill 1082, which applied restrictions on land purchases to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Lucci urged Hobbs to return the funds and enact further legislation to protect Arizona from Beijing’s influence writing, “No amount of political contributions is worth selling out the great state of Arizona to the CCP. Governor Hobbs should send the CCP-tied money back to its source and instead enact a range of executive orders and legislative solutions to protect our state from America’s enemies.”
The timing of the allegations against Hobbs, coupled with the entry of a third Republican, Congressman David Schweikert, into the 2026 gubernatorial race could prove a serious challenge for the already embattled Democrat.
Recent polling shows Congressman Andy Biggs as the clear frontrunner in the Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary over Schweikert and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 8, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
An Arizona congressman is warning constituents about the Chinese Communist Party’s close ties with Mexican drug cartels.
Congressman Abe Hamadeh, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, shared an article on X about the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) discovery of Chinese networks laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels through American financial institutions.
In his post, Hamadeh explained, “The Treasury’s FinCEN discovered that Chinese networks have been using our country to launder billions of dollars for the Mexican cartels. This is only part of a continued & concerted effort from a hostile CCP regime to undermine America’s public safety.”
According to The Center Square, in a report from FinCEN, the Treasury Department analyzed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports totaling approximately $312 billion in suspicious activity from 2020 to 2024 that “sheds light on how [Chinese money laundering networks (CMLN),] launder illicit proceeds from criminal activities, including drug trafficking, and how CMLNs launder money on a global scale.”
The report revealed several alarming findings regarding CMLNs, describing a complex web of dirty money connecting ubiquitous real estate transactions throughout the United States to human trafficking over the Mexican border, and even assisted living facilities in New York.
“Ultimately, Chinese citizens’ demand for large quantities of U.S. dollars and the cartels’ need to launder their illicit U.S. dollar proceeds has resulted in a mutualistic relationship wherein the cartels sell off their illicitly obtained U.S. dollars to CMLNs who, in turn, sell the U.S. dollars to Chinese citizens seeking to evade China’s currency control laws,” the report explained.
According to the report, “The PRC maintains strict currency controls, also known as capital flight restrictions, which limit the amount of money Chinese citizens can transfer abroad each year to 50,000 USD for investment and financial purposes.”
To bypass these restrictions, many Chinese nationals turn to this underground banking system or ‘CUBS.’ Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley told The Center Square, “Money laundering networks linked to individual passport holders from the People’s Republic of China enable cartels to poison Americans with fentanyl, conduct human trafficking, and wreak havoc among communities across our great nation.”
The report found, “Many Chinese citizens have turned to alternative methods, like the Chinese underground banking system (CUBS), to bypass these restrictions. The CUBS consists of various individuals and businesses from different industries who collaborate through ‘mirror transfers’ to move money across borders, as part of informal value transfer system schemes. The CUBS, in turn, depend on CMLNs to secure foreign currency.”
FinCEN summarized that in just the past five years, it has recorded a significant increase in the money laundering schemes at play between CMLNs and Mexican Drug Cartels, with the agents “gain(ing) prominence among global money laundering groups due to their reliability, low fees, organizational structure, worldwide presence, and access to the U.S. financial system.” It also shared that that this massive financial windfall for bad actors in China are directly to tied to operations that “launder illicit proceeds from otherwise unrelated criminal networks involved in a range of illicit activities, including fraud schemes; human trafficking and smuggling; marijuana grow house operations; and tax evasion, by facilitating the exchange of cash proceeds.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Ethan Faverino | Aug 14, 2025 | Economy, News
By Ethan Faverino |
Intel Corporation is under fire following its receipt of significant funding from the CHIPS and Science Act, followed by recent job cuts nationwide and hiring a new CEO with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In November of 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized $7.86 billion of taxpayer dollars to Intel under the CHIPS and Science Act to support semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.
This funding, part of a broader $100 billion investment plan by Intel, was intended to boost U.S. semiconductor production, create thousands of jobs, and enhance national security by reducing reliance on foreign supply chains.
In Arizona, the award was expected to support the construction of two new fabrication plants and the modernization of an existing facility at Intel’s Ocotillo campus in Chandler, creating 3,000 manufacturing jobs and over 6,000 construction jobs.
However, Intel’s announcement in August 2024 of a global workforce reduction of approximately 15,000 jobs, including 400 at its Chandler facility, has raised concerns about the alignment of these cuts with the CHIPS Act’s goal of fostering U.S. job growth.
The layoffs, part of a $10 billion cost-cutting plan prompted after a $1.6 billion net loss in Q2 2024, face criticism as Intel continues to benefit from taxpayer-funded incentives.
President Trump addressed these concerns about national job loss and a new CEO, saying, “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”
This has gotten support from other GOP members across the country, with Senator Rick Scott following up, saying, “President Trump is right, Intel owes American taxpayers answers TODAY. Intel accepted tax dollars from the CHIPS Act, and instead of investing in America, they cut jobs in the U.S. and hired a CEO with a cozy relationship to the CCP. The CHIPS Act was intended to benefit America, not our adversaries. Intel should return every dime of this taxpayer funding IMMEDIATELY!”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jul 23, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
15 months. That is how much time we have left until Arizona can elect a new governor, and it couldn’t come soon enough.
Since taking office in 2023, Katie Hobbs has been a complete disaster. The heights of her corruption have certainly been well documented. From her illegal use of public resources to solicit money for her inauguration, to an alleged pay-to-play scheme between Hobbs and an Arizona group home that donated to her inauguration, to shelling out $700,000 to a company owned by the brother of the now-former Office of Tourism Director to create a new state logo, Hobbs has proven that the people of Arizona are her lowest priority. And there are no signs that will change any time soon.
In the latest reveal of her efforts to turn her office into a jobs program for her political friends, it was discovered that Hobbs handed out nearly $600,000 in taxpayer money to a former Democrat politician and her assistant for two newly created jobs. These just add to the long line of other phony baloney jobs Hobbs has created so that her buddies can get paid six-figure salaries to sit around and do nothing on your dime. In fact, just last year, she added six new jobs in the newly created Office of Resiliency (whatever that is), four new employees in the Office of Tribal Relations, and three new in-house attorneys, to name a few. All total, Hobbs has increased executive employment costs by over 50%!
With all these new government jobs, you would think Arizona must be leading the way in the nation for job creation, but no. It’s just the opposite…
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