This country’s enemies are doing everything they can to bring us down. They’re starting from within.
And now this Chinese infiltration in the U.S. got exposed by Congressional Republicans.
China has been exploiting U.S. government-funded research and academic partnerships between American and Chinese universities, including institutions linked to the Chinese military, to gain covert access to breakthroughs in advanced technologies, according to a congressional report reviewed by The Washington Times.
The report, produced by Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), exposes a disturbing trend of technology transfers with sensitive defense applications.
This is a direct threat to U.S. national security, as China uses these partnerships to enhance its military and strategic capabilities.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal research funding over the last decade” have been exploited by the CCP to advance critical and emerging technologies, such as hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, fourth-generation nuclear weapons, and semiconductor technology, according to the report summary.
The full report, set to be released, uncovers what it describes as a “sophisticated system” that allows China to siphon off U.S. technological expertise. Many of these technologies are funneled to Chinese entities that are blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department due to their ties to China’s military and defense sector.
Although no U.S. laws have been directly violated by American universities or researchers, the report emphasizes that the lack of clear legal safeguards around federally funded research has played into Beijing’s hands. This has helped China in its race to surpass the U.S. in critical technological advancements, particularly in areas crucial for national defense.
“The purpose of research funding is to generate advancements that will eventually become applied warfighting and intelligence capabilities to protect America against adversarial nations,” the report states. However, much of this research has inadvertently given China “back-door access” to technologies that could be used against the United States in the event of a conflict.
The investigation found nearly 9,000 research publications supported by U.S. Defense Department funding that included co-authors linked to Chinese institutions. An additional 185 papers were funded by U.S. intelligence agencies.
These collaborations, often disguised as academic partnerships, have allowed China’s military to gain critical insights into advanced technologies, including explosives, drone operations, and target tracking systems — directly benefiting the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The report highlights joint institutes between U.S. and Chinese universities, such as the Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute (GTSI), and the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI), as key players in these technology transfers.
These institutes serve as conduits through which American academics, many of whom are involved in U.S. government-funded research, collaborate with Chinese entities on technologies with national security implications.
In a positive move for U.S. national security, Georgia Tech recently terminated its joint institute with Tianjin University, an entity on the U.S. Commerce Department’s blacklist since 2020. U.C. Berkeley has also begun unwinding its partnership with TBSI, signaling that some universities are waking up to the threat posed by these collaborations.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with China, praised Georgia Tech for its actions and called on other institutions to follow suit.
“Georgia Tech did the right thing for U.S. national security by shutting down its PRC-based joint institute, and U.C. Berkeley and other universities should follow suit,” he said.
Moolenaar, along with other lawmakers, is pushing for stricter legal guardrails to prevent future collaborations that could compromise national security. He urged the Senate to pass the Deterrent Act, which would ban research collaborations with blacklisted entities and enforce stricter oversight of foreign funding in American universities.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, echoed these sentiments. She emphasized the importance of transparency in foreign investments in U.S. research institutions, stating that American universities must not be complicit in aiding China’s efforts to undermine U.S. security.
The report also criticized the Biden administration for its failure to enforce foreign gift and contract reporting requirements under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, accusing the administration of turning a blind eye to Chinese influence on American campuses.
“Enforcement of foreign gift and contract reporting requirements by the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been an abject failure,” the report states, calling for stronger safeguards and robust enforcement to protect U.S. research from foreign exploitation.
In an era of fierce global competition, the United States must protect its technological edge and ensure that taxpayer-funded research is not weaponized by adversaries like China.
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