The Congressional Republican report said U.S.-China partnerships in universities support China and give it an advantage in developing critical technologies. (Greg Baker/AP Photo)
WASHINGTON, DC — Partnerships between U.S. and Chinese universities over the past decade have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help the Chinese government develop critical technologies that can be used for military purposes, officials said. Congressional Republicans made the claim in a new report.
The report found that U.S. tax dollars contributed to China’s technological advances and military modernization as U.S. researchers worked with Chinese researchers on hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, nuclear technology, and semiconductor technology. pointed out.
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The report, released Monday by Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China and the House Education and Workforce Committee, raised concerns that the once-lauded scientific cooperation would be exposed to national security risks. It called for stronger safeguards and stronger enforcement.
The commission conducted a year-long investigation into the role of higher education in China’s economic competition, particularly regarding technology. Although American universities are not involved in secret research projects, their research is often among the best in the world and has the potential to be used by military forces.
The U.S. House of Representatives this month approved about 20 China-related bills explicitly aimed at competing with China in the high-tech sector. The bill, which still needs Senate approval, would ban Chinese-made drones, restrict Chinese-linked biotech companies from the U.S. market and cut off China’s remote access to advanced U.S. computer chips.
Other measures include a Trump-era program aimed at curbing Chinese influence on U.S. college campuses and rooting out Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft at U.S. universities and research institutions. This includes the revival of This is despite such efforts raising concerns about racial profiling and the ability to continue exchange programs that increase tolerance between the two countries.
Researchers say collaboration between U.S.-based academics and China has declined since the Trump administration’s counterespionage program ended in 2022.
At a Council on Foreign Relations forum earlier this year, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said he would welcome more Chinese students who study humanities and social sciences but “not particle physics” in American schools.
Abigail Coplin, assistant professor of sociology and science, technology, and society at Vassar College, expressed concern about the potential for academic exchange and scientific engagement to be undermined, which could foster understanding and stabilize relationships. Said it was helpful.
“It’s clear that U.S. federal funds should not be used to improve China’s military capabilities, but we also need to have more conversations about non-national security issues and the negative effects of over-securitization,” Coplin said. Ta. “Decreased people-to-people interactions are contributing to the current rapid deterioration of U.S.-China relations.”
Monday’s report identified approximately 8,800 publications involving U.S. researchers who received funding from the Department of Defense and U.S. intelligence agencies and collaborated with Chinese researchers, many of which were related to China’s national defense. Concerned with research and industrial infrastructure. The report states that such research “provides backdoor access to the very foreign adversaries needed to prevent invasion, which these capabilities are necessary to defend.”
The House investigation also found problems with joint research institutes between U.S. and Chinese universities. The report said these agencies “conceal sophisticated systems for transferring critical U.S. technology and expertise to China.”
Through these institutes, U.S. researchers and scientists, including those who conduct federally funded research, travel to China to collaborate with and advise Chinese academics and provide support to Chinese students, according to the report. He is said to be training.
Georgia Tech, whose joint report named Georgia Tech’s Shenzhen Research Institute, defends its research activities in China, saying it focuses on educating students rather than research, and that its claims are “unsubstantiated.” No,” he said.
“No research was conducted at GTSI, no technology transfer was facilitated, and no federal funding was provided to China,” the university said in a statement.
However, Georgia Tech announced on September 6 that it would cease participating in a joint research institute with Tianjin University and the government of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Georgia Tech said the partnership was “no longer sustainable” after the U.S. Department of Commerce accused Tianjin University of trade secret theft in 2020.
The Congressional report also cited the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, which the University of California, Berkeley and China’s Tsinghua University opened in Shenzhen in 2015 to focus on “strategic emerging industries,” according to the institute’s website. Also identified.
Katherine Yelich, the university’s vice president for research, said that Berkeley researchers “engage only in research whose results are consistently and publicly disseminated to the world,” and that the school is “a member of TBSI’s Berkeley “I had no knowledge of any research conducted by the faculty for other purposes.”
