Talk:Matt Salmon

Matt Salmon was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona.

Salmon served as U.S. representative for Arizona’s 5th Congressional District and chaired the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee on the House Foreign Relations Committee. He retired from politics in 2016.

He served as the vice president for government affairs at Arizona State University, where his position included, “working with the governments of other countries to advance international projects.” Arizona State is home to a Confucius Institute, a Beijing-funded educational enterprise that Salmon has said brings around $200,000 a year to the university.

At an April event in Washington, co-hosted by the Confucius Institute as it faced congressional scrutiny over threats to academic freedom on U.S. campuses, Salmon dismissed rising concerns about China as “McCarthyism” and said that the United States should work “with the only other superpower and not against it.”

Salmon is again running for governor in 2022. He’s reportedly earned $336,090 yearly as the chief lobbyist for Arizona State University, notably supporting the Confucius Institute. He was aided in his duties as a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker. He learned the language in preparation for his 1970’s mission in Taiwan.