Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) helped keep communist Chinese influence out of his state after he wrote a letter to the University of Texas advising them not to take any money from a Chinese foundation thought to use its funds to spread communism in the United States.

The money was meant to fund the new interdisciplinary China Policy Center, but was blocked by university President Gregory Fenves.

Cruz wrote the letter on January 2, warning UT that the China United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) have caused concerns “over the potential for Chinese governmental access to UT-Austin’s education system, which may lead to undue foreign influence and exploitation.”

“Under the direction of Xi Jinping, the PRC and the CCP have initiated information operations throughout the entire world, most recently in Australia, Latin America, and the United States,” wrote Cruz. “The PRC aims to gradually establish influence in policy debates abroad by shaping Americans’ perception of China.”

According to Campus Reform, the CUSEF had links to the Chinese Communist Party, and was tasked with spreading influence here in the United States:

Both the Chinese group and its leader, Tung Chee-hwa, were suspected of having strong ties to the Communist Party branch that is tasked with influence operations abroad. The connection quickly raised eyebrows among several university officials after the China Policy Center’s Executive Director David Firestein, who is a former foreign service officer, proposed to fund the project through CUSEF.

Fenves wrote a letter responding to Cruz, saying that he had already conducted a lengthy investigation into CUSEF, and decided not to take the money prior to receiving Cruz’s warning about them.

“Based on that review, I had decided prior to receiving your letter that the university will not accept programmatic funding from CUSEF,” Fenves wrote. “Neither will we accept any funds for travel, student exchanges or other initiatives from the organization.”

It’s good to know that Cruz and the University of Texas are attempting to keep communist influence from spreading like the plague throughout the great state of Texas. Lord knows that enough pro-communist sentiment taints too many institutions of higher learning.