California Globe: Report Reveals CCP Exploits University Ties To Gain Access to DOD Funded Research
A report from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, following two years of research, and an exposé from the Associated Press that has received very little attention, outlined a nightmare scenario early this month. Over 1,400 research publications from DOD-funded projects with Chinese partners—totaling more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funding at Universities across America are tied both to the U.S. Department of War and Chinese Universities, all of which are fully integrated into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) structure as well as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) military. This allows the CCP to “exploit U.S. universities—and gain access to U.S. government-funded research—to fuel its military and technological rise.”
Some of the most prominent research institutions in the nation were noted in the report’s case studies, including Arizona State University, the California Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, Iowa State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Michigan.
Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) said in a Friday press release, “American universities should never be a pipeline for the Chinese Communist Party’s military ambitions, and this report reveals alarming new details about their partnerships with CCP-controlled institutions. These collaborations empower China’s military and exploit research paid for by American taxpayers. That’s why I am working with Chairman Walberg to pass the SAFE Research Act, which will end joint institutes, and stop our tax dollars from aiding our adversaries,”
In the text of the report entitled “Fox in the Hen House”, committee Republicans warned, “Failing to safeguard American research from hostile foreign exploitation will continue to erode U.S. technological dominance and place our national defense capabilities at risk.” They added, “American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation — not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor.”
The report summarizes the shocking scenario, stating,
“The Select Committee identified approximately 1,400 research papers published between June 2023 and June 2025, acknowledging DOD funding or research support that also involved collaboration with PRC entities, which included over 300 DOD grants. Of these, over 700 publications—or just over 50%—were conducted in partnership.”
The committee added, “Numerous DOD-funded research awards—some still active—have been conducted in collaboration with entities directly tied to China’s defense research and industrial base.”
The report highlighted: “the most concerning are partnerships involving the ‘Seven Sons of National Defense’ Chinese universities, numerous State Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) co-administered schools, national defense-designated laboratories, the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), a Chinese cyber-range, and BGI (formerly Beijing Genomics Institute)—all of which have been publicly linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and some of which appear on U.S. government entity lists due to their roles in advancing China’s military capabilities or engaging in human rights violations.”
The committee expressed alarm at these findings, noting, “This lapse reflects DOD R&E’s (Department of War— Research & Engineering) failure to adopt a proactive approach to prohibiting such collaborations.”
The report’s first case study even revealed joint research explicitly of a military nature, described as “Attack-Resilient Mission Planning For Swarms Of Autonomous Systems.”
The report stated, “A 2025 publication on sequential decision-making processes was funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)… was conducted collaboratively by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beihang University. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is co-administered by SASTIND, while Beihang University is one of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense”—a group of universities closely tied to the PLA. Beihang University was added to the BIS (Bureau of Industry and Security) Entity List in 2001, due to its involvement in rocket systems and unmanned air vehicle activities.”
“According to the award, the U.S. Navy funded this research for ‘Attack-Resilient Mission Planning for Swarms of Autonomous Systems.’ The ONR grant is still in the period of performance through 2026. The ARO grant description, titled ‘Synthesis of Strategies for Information Integrity and Manipulation in Adversarial Environments,’ was awarded with a performance period from August 2023 to August 2026.”
As highlighted by The Associated Press, other projects outlined in the report also possessed “clear military applications,” with the outlet specifically citing the egregious case of a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institute in Washington who worked on Pentagon-backed research while being simultaneously employed by both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences.
“This position at the Chinese Academy of Sciences ran concurrently with his Carnegie Institution position and overlaps with numerous DOD, DOE, and NSF awards he conducted research on. After joining the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was selected in 2012 for China’s Thousand Talents Program—a state-run talent recruitment initiative designed to attract overseas experts in strategic fields and incentivize the transfer of foreign research, intellectual property, and technological know-how to the PRC.”
The professor whose name and image were redacted from the report was publicly credited by the Communist Chinese government for “leading China to develop new materials and technologies for cutting-edge defense weaponry, such as nanomaterial synthesis, multiscale fine structure regulation, and additive manufacturing techniques, to continuously narrow the technological gap between China and the international community,” through a 12-year research partnership with the professor whose research had been funded by the Department of Defense for over a decade.
The 79-page report details over a dozen similar cases across a broad range of highly sensitive, military-applicable research from “millimeter wave technology, radar detection, intelligent unmanned systems, integrated circuits, antenna design, materials diffusion, and 6G mobile communications” to “shock waves, detonation physics, hydrodynamics, high-pressure physics, and nuclear test simulations, critical for nuclear warhead design and stockpile maintenance.”
Following the report’s release, Chairman Moolenaar authored and introduced the SAFE Research Act. The act was subsequently included in the National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the House on September 10, and is currently pending in the Senate.
In a joint statement with the Committee on Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI), both lawmakers wrote, “Joint Institutes—entities based in China that pair American universities with Chinese institutions—are not typical academic collaborations that benefit students from both countries. They are under the thumb of the CCP. They operate under PRC law; are run by Chinese-majority boards and have Party presence in leadership; and are aligned with the CCP’s national strategy, including its military buildup.” They concluded, “Chinese government funding dominates these joint institutes, and the use of funds is restricted by law to align with CCP goals.”