Pentagon-funded research at colleges has aided the Chinese military, a House GOP report says

WASHINGTON AP Over a modern two-year period the Pentagon funded hundreds of projects done in collaboration with universities in China and institutes linked to that nation s defense industry including a great number of blacklisted by the U S establishment for working with the Chinese military a congressional research has determined The account published Friday by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party argues the projects have allowed China to exploit U S research partnerships for military gains while the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor Republicans wrote in the overview Failing to safeguard American research from hostile foreign exploitation will continue to erode U S technological dominance and place our national defense capabilities at menace it commented The Pentagon and didn t directly respond to an Associated Press request for comment The congressional description noted selected agents at the Defense Department argued research should remain open as long as it is neither controlled nor classified The record makes several recommendations to scale back U S research collaboration with China It also backs new measure proposed by the committee s chairman Rep John Moolenaar R-Michigan The bill would prohibit any Defense Department funding from going to projects done in collaboration with researchers affiliated with Chinese entities that the U S ruling body identifies as safety risks The Chinese Embassy on Friday called the assessment groundless We oppose it the embassy commented Beijing has in the past declared science and technological cooperation between the two countries is mutually beneficial and helps them cope with global challenges Republicans say the joint research could have military applications The -page document builds on the committee s findings last year that partnerships between U S and Chinese universities over the past decade allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help Beijing develop critical instrument Amid pressure from Republicans several U S universities have ended their joint programs with Chinese schools in up-to-date years The new summary focuses more narrowly on the Defense Department and its billions of dollars in annual research funding The committee s research identified research papers published between June and June that acknowledged help from the Pentagon and were done in collaboration with Chinese partners The publications were funded by specific defense grants worth more than billion Of the publications more than half involved organizations affiliated with China s defense research and industrial base Dozens of those organizations were flagged for feasible safeguard concerns on U S executive lists though federal law does not prohibit research collaborations with them The Defense Department money supported research in fields including hypersonic tool semiconductors artificial intelligence advanced materials and next-generation propulsion Multiple of the projects have clear military applications according to the account In one matter a geophysicist at Carnegie Science a research institution in Washington worked extensively on Pentagon-backed research while holding appointments at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences The scientist who has done research on high-energy materials nitrogen and high-pressure physics all of which are relevant to nuclear weapons enhancement has been honored in China for his work to advance the country s national maturation goals the statement announced It called the circumstance a deeply troubling example of how Beijing can leverage U S taxpayer-funded research to further its weapons advance In a report Carnegie Science mentioned it complies with all U S laws The work cited was fundamental research publicly available and entirely unclassified This research focused on basic properties of matter related to planetary science the institute noted Carnegie Science also disputed the account s assertion that the work was funded by the Pentagon saying it came from the National Science Foundation s Major Research Instrumentation project In another Pentagon-backed project Arizona State University and the University of Texas partnered with researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Beihang University to survey high-stakes decision-making in uncertain environments which has direct applications for electronic warfare and cyber defense the record revealed The money came from the Office of Naval Research the Army Research Office and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration The Shanghai university is under the supervision of a central Chinese agency tasked with emerging defense device and Beihang University in the capital city of Beijing is linked to the People s Liberation Army and known for its aerospace programs Calls for scaling back research collaborations The review takes issue with Defense Department policies that do not explicitly forbid research partnerships with foreign institutions that appear on U S executive blacklists It makes more than a dozen recommendations including a prohibition on any Pentagon research collaboration with entities that are on U S blacklists or known to be part of China s defense research and industrial base Moolenaar s act includes a similar provision and proposes a ban on Defense Department funding for U S universities that operate joint institutes with Chinese universities A senior Coaching Department official announced the review highlights the vulnerability of federally funded research to foreign infiltration on America s campuses Under Secretary of Instruction Nicholas Kent stated the findings reinforce the need for more transparency around U S universities international ties along with a whole-of-government approach to safeguard against the malign influence of hostile foreign actors House investigators noted they are not seeking to end all academic and research collaborations with China but those with connections to the Chinese military and its research and industrial base