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U.S. colleges only have to report foreign donations if the check is for more than $250,000. Anything underneath that is effectively invisible. Even with that massive blind spot, the receipts are staggering.

The Department of Education just released new disclosure data. Roughly $405 million went to American universities from organizations that sit on U.S. sanctions lists. Most of it—$309 million—came from Chinese entities.

Huawei and its subsidiaries accounted for $42 million. The Beijing Institute of Technology, which has deep ties to China’s defense sector, donated $49 million.

The timing matters. These donations happened before the U.S. government placed those specific groups under sanction. The money was legal when it cleared the bank. The problem is the transparency. Because reporting has been inconsistent for decades, nobody knows the true scope of the financial partnerships holding up American research labs. Legislation is now moving through Congress to rip up the $250,000 threshold and force universities to open their books.