“It was extraordinary,” said Paul Moore, who served as the agency’s chief investigative counsel during the Trump administration, in congressional testimony on Thursday. UPenn raked in over $100 million from China-based contributors between 2017 and 2022, the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this year. This was a substantial increase from the four years prior to 2017, when the school received a total of $19 million.

Moore’s testimony comes as UPenn and the Penn Biden Center face scrutiny over the surge in foreign donations, many of them anonymous, that coincided with the think tank’s opening and President Joe Biden’s election. Watchdog groups have said the funding raises concerns about foreign influence-buying.

[This isn’t as disturbing as the Biden Inc commercial ties with China, as it doesn’t necessarily show a direct benefit to the Bidens through their “think tank.” It’s still disturbing, and so is the media’s lack of interest in following the money in both cases. — Ed]