House Members Launch Investigation Into EPA Official’s Continued Ties With Chinese Government-Controlled University
- September 7, 2021
Andrew Kerr, Daily Caller
Members of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday demanding the agency provide records related to a political appointee’s continued ties with a Chinese government-controlled university.
The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported that EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science Policy Dr. Christopher Frey, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in early February, disclosed in his ethics recusal statement that he had taken an unpaid leave of absence from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The ex officio chancellor of the university, Carrie Lam, is also Beijing’s hand-picked bureaucrat to serve as the chief executive of Hong Kong.
The watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust, which first obtained Frey’s recusal statement, said the university is effectively an arm of the Chinese government and that “one can presume from the leave that [Frey] plans to return to his employment with the Chinese government upon completing his tenure at EPA.”