House Panel Blasts DOD for Funding Research With US-Restricted Chinese Firms
The Defense Department routinely funds research by Chinese entities that the U.S. government has placed on restricted lists for their ties to China’s military or role in human rights abuses, compromising the value of those designations, the House Select Committee on China said in a new report released Sept. 5.
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The Pentagon’s Research and Engineering arm permits relationships on “fundamental research” with entities on DOD’s 1260H list of Chinese military companies, “rendering the list functionally meaningless and undermining its own research security framework,” the committee said. Research collaboration with entities on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List and the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list also is allowed.
The report outlines a host of “case studies” of concerning DOD-backed projects. Navy-funded research on autonomous system swarms, along with a related Army grant, included China’s Beihang University even though the university has been on the Entity List for its work on rocket systems and unmanned air vehicles. The university’s involvement in the project “signals a shocking lapse in due diligence,” the report says.
China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) participated in Air Force- and Navy-funded research on two-dimensional materials despite being on the Entity List for its military ties. The Beijing Computation Science and Research Center (CSRC), which is on the Entity List for its nuclear weapons work, co-authored an Air Force-funded publication on condensed matter physics and quantum systems research. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which is on the Entity List for missile proliferation, co-authored an Air Force-funded publication on nano-scale optical devices.
A visiting scholar from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) co-authored an Air Force- and Army-funded publication on micro-laser research even though BUPT is on the Entity List for its work on advanced weapon systems. China’s BGI Research Group took part in Navy-funded genomics research despite being on the 1260H list for its ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex and on the Entity List for its role in enabling the surveillance and repression of ethnic minorities.
The report contains several recommendations, including that DOD prohibit research collaboration with any entity on a U.S. government restricted list. "These lists already represent vetted national security determinations," the document says. “Allowing DOD-funded research with such entities contradicts existing U.S. policy and exposes taxpayer-funded innovation to adversarial exploitation."
The report says committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., is introducing a bill, the Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation Act, or Safe Research Act, which would bar DOD from funding universities that partner with Chinese entities that pose a national security risk. It also would prohibit federal science, technology, engineering and math research funding for researchers who collaborate with such Chinese entities.
In an e-mailed statement, a Pentagon official said DOD "is committed to safeguarding taxpayer-funded research. This administration is taking decisive action to counter exploitative practices by [China] through the implementation of rigorous oversight and enhanced due diligence measures."
The report was released about a year after the committee and another House panel called on Congress to strengthen the “guardrails” around federally funded research collaboration between American universities and Chinese defense-linked universities to ensure China doesn't obtain technology to improve its military or commit human rights abuses (see 2409240052).