For the first time in more than 20 years, a sitting Wisconsin congressman testified at the state Capitol before members of the legislature. Representative Mike Gallagher became the first member of the state’s congressional delegation to testify before a committee since Paul Ryan in 1999. Gallagher was invited to appear Tuesday before the senate’s committee on universities and technical colleges. The subject was international security and Gallagher warned of China sending over spies to work as researchers where they could access insider knowledge about American institutions and technology before bringing it back to China. One of the universities in question is UW-Platteville. Paul Erickson, a spokesperson for UW-Platteville, confirmed the university ended its ties with the Chinese-funded Confucius Institute it had on campus. The institutes provided language courses and promoted cultural understanding. Erickson said the Platteville campus had a 12-year relationship with South-Central University for Nationalities in Wuhan.
