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GAO says watchdogs can’t trace $1.2B in anti-China influence projects since 2020
by KRISTINE FRAZAO | The National News Desk
Mon, June 29, 2026 at 3:53 PM
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Where did the money go? That’s a question government watchdogs are asking about a program mandated by Congress to try to diminish Chinese influence on a global scale.
The Government Accountability Office is out with a brand-new report that is full of questions about how more than a billion dollars in taxpayer money was spent.
The effort is one very few in Congress would disagree is needed: how to counter the Chinese communist party’s growing power and influence around the world.
It’s the central reason why Congress allocated money and resources: to counter China's economic coercion, its efforts to expand its authoritarian system of government and military sales and development of military technology.
The U.S. State Department and (now defunct) U.S. Agency for International Development reported funding 470 projects costing about $1.2 billion for fiscal years 2020 - 2023.
But there has been little accounting of what specifically the money was spent on.
The report asserts that the working group, which oversees the process, does not have readily available and reliable data on projects that it funded and approved since 2020, data the GAO said would be important to track how funding has been used.
There is also concern that there isn't even "a framework to determine the results of the projects that were carried out."
Questions were raised about the fund back in May 2023, during a hearing with the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"The budget is also not clear on how USAID plans to spend the requested $400 million for the countering PRC influence fund," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
Then USAID Administrator Samantha Power made the case that the millions of dollars requested would be money well spent
"An international order that values democracy and human rights and respects international borders is not a given. Indeed, 3532 authoritarian actors are challenging and aiming to reshape it. We have to invest in the stable and more humane world that we need," he said.
