A group of Republican senators, led by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), have called on Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to bar Chinese nationals from accessing American national laboratories. The letter, signed by several other senators including John Barrasso, John Cornyn, Jim Risch, James Lankford, Jerry Moran, Todd Young, and Jim Justice, expresses concern about the security risks posed by Chinese foreign nationals working in U.S. labs.
The senators highlighted the Genesis Mission—an initiative launched last November through executive order as a modern-day Manhattan Project—to secure American leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). They argue that allowing Chinese nationals access to sensitive research could compromise both technological advances and national security.
“Genesis Mission was launched to help the U.S. win the race with China for AI supremacy by harnessing untapped prowess in this space at our national laboratories. Continuing to give access to the cutting-edge work performed at these laboratories to Chinese nationals who will turn everything they know over to the CCP directly undermines the purpose of Genesis Mission. Therefore, we respectfully recommend that you mitigate threats to Genesis Mission by promulgating a policy prohibiting the national laboratories from granting Chinese nationals access to any national laboratory site, information, or technology,” wrote the senators.
The letter notes that in fiscal year 2024 alone approximately 3,200 Chinese nationals were approved for access to national laboratory sites or technologies. The senators argue this figure does not account for those with legal permanent resident status and therefore may understate total numbers.
They also expressed skepticism about current vetting procedures: “As you may know, simply requiring these individuals to be properly vetted prior to granting them access is not a sufficient safeguard. First, the sheer number of Chinese nationals coming to the labs outpaces the capacity of the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence to vet them. Second, efforts to vet will likely fail to yield affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of China’s efforts to obfuscate them. Lastly, scientists and researchers who might not directly work for the Chinese government can be compelled in one way or another by the regime to turn over what they have learned during their time at a national laboratory.”
Accordingly, they urge Secretary Wright “to put an end” to employment or research opportunities for scientists from China within these federal facilities.
