Following a year-long investigation, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) of the House Education and Workforce Committee revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal research funding over the last decade have contributed to China’s technological advancements and military modernization. The lawmakers found that Americans collaborated with Chinese researchers on nearly 9,000 joint research publications funded by the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community. These papers covered topics such as high-performance explosives, tracking targets, drone operation networks, nuclear and high-energy physics, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and hypersonics.
The investigation included six case studies involving institutions like UCLA and U.C. Berkeley. These studies showed how China's defense establishment benefits from technological advances developed by federally funded researchers. Researchers used their expertise gained through federal funding to help China achieve advancements in fourth-generation nuclear weapons technology, artificial intelligence, advanced lasers, graphene semiconductors, and robotics.
US-Chinese joint education institutes like U.C. Berkeley’s partnership with Tsinghua University and the University of Pittsburgh's partnership with Sichuan University were also identified as conduits for transferring critical U.S. technologies to China.
Congressman John R. Moolenaar
| Rep. John R. Moolenaar Official U.S House Headshot
“The results of our joint investigation are alarming," said Chairman Moolenaar. "The Chinese Communist Party is driving its military advancements through US taxpayer-funded research and through joint US-PRC institutes in China." He added that Georgia Tech had set an example for national security by shutting down its PRC-based joint institute and urged other universities to follow suit.
Chairwoman Foxx emphasized the need for transparency regarding foreign investment in American universities: “Our research universities have a responsibility to avoid any complicity in the CCP’s atrocious human rights abuses or attempts to undermine our national security."
Chair Cathy McMorris-Rodgers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee stated: “To win the future and beat the Chinese Communist Party in developing next generation technology, we must stop government research that bolsters our adversaries' military and intelligence-gathering capabilities.”
The report highlighted that due to a lack of legal guardrails around federally funded research, significant amounts of U.S. federal research funding have helped China achieve advancements in dual-use technologies like hypersonic weapons and semiconductor technology.
The Committees recommend strengthening guardrails around research collaboration on dual-use technologies with foreign entities of concern, implementing post-award restrictions on collaborations with blacklisted entities from foreign countries of concern, adopting enhanced transparency measures for universities regarding foreign gifts and contracts through the DETERRENT Act, and improving oversight and enforcement related to foreign funding disclosures.
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