Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions by collaborating on a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the U.S. government, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

据知情人士和《纽约时报》查阅的文件，国务卿鲁比奥正在推动调查哈佛大学是否违反了联邦制裁，因为哈佛大学在中国合作举办的医疗保险研讨会中可能有被美国政府列入黑名单的官员。

Mr. Rubio signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department last month to open an investigation, which experts and former Treasury officials said was an unusual attempt from a cabinet secretary to target a domestic entity for sanctions enforcement.

鲁比奥上月签署了一项建议，希望财政部展开调查。专家和前财政部官员表示，这是内阁部长推动针对本国机构的制裁执法调查的一次不同寻常的尝试。

Whether the agency within the Treasury that handles sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, opened an investigation in response was unclear — but such a move could expose Harvard to significant legal risks. Mr. Rubio’s action is the latest example of the Trump administration’s whole-of-government approach to bringing the Ivy League university to heel.

目前尚不清楚财政部内部负责制裁的外国资产控制办公室是否已对此展开调查，但此举可能会使哈佛大学面临重大的法律风险。鲁比奥的行动是特朗普政府动用全部政府力量迫使这所常春藤盟校就范的最新例证。

President Trump has sought for months to impose his political agenda on Harvard by reshaping its curriculum, admissions and hiring processes. The effort initially relied primarily on accusations that university officials had not done enough to address antisemitism on campus. In recent weeks, however, the administration’s focus has expanded to other issues, including allegations about Harvard’s foreign ties, particularly to China.

几个月来，特朗普总统一直试图通过重塑哈佛大学的课程、招生和招聘流程，将自己的政治议程强加给哈佛。这项努力最初主要依靠指责大学官员应对校园反犹太主义问题不力。然而，最近几周，政府的关注点扩大到其他问题上，包括对哈佛大学与外国关系的指控，尤其是与中国的关系。

A potential sanctions investigation demonstrates how Harvard’s problems with the government extend far beyond questions of whether the school will continue receiving federal funding. Mr. Trump and his allies appear determined to upend nearly all aspects of the institution, which has long symbolized the pinnacle of higher learning in the country and attracted influential scholars from around the globe.

一项潜在的制裁调查表明，哈佛大学与政府的问题远远超出了学校是否将继续接受联邦资助的范畴。特朗普及其盟友似乎决心颠覆这所学校的几乎所有方面，长期以来，该校一直象征着美国高等教育的巅峰，吸引着全球各地有影响力的学者。

A spokesman for the Treasury Department said the agency takes any allegations of sanctions violations “extremely seriously” but declined to comment on a possible or pending sanctions investigation. A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

财政部发言人表示该部“非常认真”对待任何违反制裁的指控，但拒绝就可能或正在进行的制裁调查置评。国务院发言人拒绝置评。

The health insurance conference, known as the Training Course on Health Financing, began in 2019 as a joint venture between Harvard, the World Bank and the National Health Insurance Administration, the arm of the Chinese government that oversees the state-backed health care system, according to the university’s website. Over the years, training has focused on topics like “innovative provider payment methods” and “pricing and payment for internet health.”

据哈佛大学网站介绍，这一名为“卫生筹资旗舰项目培训班”的医疗保险研讨会始于2019年，是哈佛大学、世界银行和中国国家医疗保障局（中国政府负责监督国家支持的医疗系统的部门）的合作项目。多年来，培训的重点包括“创新的提供商支付方式”和“互联网健康服务的定价和支付”等主题。

The university has promoted the event, which in some years has drawn upward of 200 people, as a key part of a broader “Harvard China Health Partnership” inside its T.H. Chan School for Public Health. University officials have previously described the event as aimed at expanding access to high-quality health care for 1.4 billion people in China.

哈佛大学将这一活动作为其陈曾熙公共卫生学院更广泛的“哈佛中国健康合作伙伴关系”的重要组成部分来宣传。在某些年份，这一活动可吸引200多人参加。大学官员此前曾表示，此次活动旨在为中国14亿人提供高质量的医疗服务。

Behind Mr. Rubio’s sanctions push is the presence of officials from a Chinese state-run group called the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps at some, if not all, of the conferences since 2019. The X.P.C.C. is known in northwest China for building towns and running its own university and hospital systems. The group is also responsible for systemic human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the region, according to the U.S. government.

鲁比奥之所以推动调查哈佛是否违反制裁，是因为一个名为新疆生产建设兵团的中国国有集团的官员自2019年以来至少参加了部分、甚至可能是全部相关会议。新疆生产建设兵团在中国西北地区以建设城镇、经营自己的大学和医院系统而闻名。据美国政府称，该组织还对该地区系统性侵犯维吾尔和其他少数民族人权的行为负有责任。

The Chinese government formed the X.P.C.C. more than seven decades ago as a paramilitary organization tasked with settling a distant region with many ethnic groups and some militias. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the group in 2020.

中国政府在70多年前组建了该兵团，作为一个准军事组织，其任务是安置一个偏远地区的多民族部队和一些民兵。美国财政部于2020年对该组织实施了制裁。

Harvard has been conducting an internal review into the X.P.C.C.’s involvement at the conference, but it was unclear what details had been turned up, according to two people familiar with the inquiry who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal university deliberations.

哈佛大学一直在对新疆生产建设兵团参与会议的情况进行内部审查，但据两名熟悉调查的人士透露，目前还不清楚发现了哪些细节。两人因谈及哈佛大学的内部讨论而坚持要求匿名。

A Harvard spokesman declined to comment.

哈佛大学发言人拒绝置评。

An archived version of a Harvard webpage about the inaugural conference noted that participants in the training included the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. That event occurred one year before the U.S. government targeted the group for sanctions, but mention of the X.P.C.C. has since been deleted.

哈佛大学关于首届研讨会的网页存档版本指出，参加培训的人员包括新疆生产建设兵团。此次研讨会发生在美国政府将该兵团列为制裁对象的一年前，但此后提及该兵团的内容已被删除。

A Chinese government website about the 2023 conference shows that participants that year — three years after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the X.P.C.C. — included Chinese health officials, scholars from “top universities,” such as Harvard, and representatives of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

中国政府网站上关于2023年研讨会的资料显示，在美国对新疆生产建设兵团实施制裁三年后，那一年的与会者包括中国卫生官员、哈佛等“顶尖大学”的学者和该兵团的代表。

Still, the X.P.C.C.’s involvement in the conference only recently gained attention from Trump allies, after a report about Harvard’s links to China published on April 22 by Strategy Risks, a New York-based intelligence company specializing in corporate exposure to China. The report was funded by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that has advised Republican policymakers.

不过，该组织参与研讨会是最近才引起特朗普盟友的注意的，4月22日，专门研究企业与中国关系的纽约情报公司“战略风险”发布了一份关于哈佛大学与中国关系的报告。该报告由曾为共和党决策者提供建议的保守派智库曼哈顿研究所资助。

Since then, the report’s details have been highlighted in news articles from conservative media outlets and public statements from Republican officials.

从那以后，保守派媒体的新闻文章和共和党官员的公开声明都强调了这份报告的细节。

On May 15, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas cited the Strategy Risks report in a letter to Mr. Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging an investigation into Harvard’s public health school. On May 19, Republicans on the House education committee sent a request for records to Harvard about, in part, the X.P.C.C.’s involvement in the conference.

5月15日，阿肯色州参议员汤姆·科顿在给鲁比奥和财政部长贝森特的一封信中引用了“战略风险”的这份报告，敦促对哈佛大学公共卫生学院进行调查。5月19日，众议院教育委员会的共和党人要求哈佛提供记录，其中部分内容涉及新疆生产建设兵团参与会议的情况。

On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security said that Harvard had “hosted and trained” members of the group and included a link to a Fox News article about the House Republican records request in its news release.

5月22日，国土安全部称，哈佛“接待并培训”该组织的成员，并在新闻稿中附上了福克斯新闻一篇关于众议院共和党人要求记录的文章的链接。

Investigations of potential sanctions violations could take months or years, while penalties range from a cautionary letter from the government to significant financial damages.

对潜在的违反制裁行为的调查可能需要数月或数年时间，而处罚可以是政府的一封警告信，也可以是巨额的经济损失。

Other cabinet secretaries — like the secretary of state — often coordinate with the Treasury secretary on foreign individuals, groups or countries that they believe should be subject to sanctions. But it is atypical for the nation’s chief diplomat to single out an American individual, group or company for a potential violation, according to John Smith, a former director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

其他内阁部长——如国务卿——经常与财政部长就他们认为应该受到制裁的外国个人、团体或国家进行协调。但据美国财政部外国资产控制办公室前主任约翰·史密斯表示，美国首席外交官专门指出某美国个人、团体或公司可能违反了相关规定是十分罕见的。

Sanctions investigations, Mr. Smith said, are typically started after reporting in media or from companies, the intelligence community or law enforcement.

史密斯说，制裁调查通常是在媒体或公司、情报界或执法部门报告后开始的。

“I wouldn’t say it’s wrong or improper,” Mr. Smith said. “I would just say it’s unusual and not the usual course of business.”

“我不会说这是错的或不合适的，”史密斯说。“我只想说，这是不寻常的，不是通常的做法。”

Typically, after learning of a potential violation, the Office of Foreign Assets Control decides whether to open an investigation. If the office ultimately finds wrongdoing, the Treasury could impose civil penalties and recommend that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges. In particularly egregious instances, companies can be hit with civil and criminal penalties that come with fines as high as billions of dollars.

通常情况下，在了解到潜在的违规行为后，外国资产控制办公室会决定是否展开调查。如果该办公室最终发现存在不当行为，财政部可能会处以民事处罚，并建议司法部提起刑事指控。在特别恶劣的情况下，涉事机构可能会受到民事和刑事处罚，罚款可高达数十亿美元。