National Defense

US-Funded Research Helped Strengthen China’s Military, Congressional Report Says

President Joe Biden and People's Republic of China President Xi Jinping in Woodside, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2023. (Screen Capture/NBC News)

Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal funding have inadvertently contributed to China’s technological advancements and military, according to a congressional report released Monday.

Over the last decade, the funding in question went toward thousands of research programs conducted jointly between the U.S. and Chinese entities on strategic technologies, according to the report released by the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Committee on Education and Workforce. Because of a lack of “legal guardrails” around the research, China was able to benefit in critical technological sectors that have ultimately helped China strengthen its military, which is rapidly trying to match pace with the U.S.’ defense capabilities.

“The results of our joint investigation are alarming,” House Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar of Michigan told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “The Chinese Communist Party is driving its military advancements through U.S. taxpayer-funded research and through joint U.S.-(People’s Republic of China) PRC institutes in China.”

TONIGHT — Chairman @RepMoolenaar & @EdWorkforceCmte Chairwoman @virginiafoxx will speak on a @hamiltonsoc panel focusing on malign foreign efforts to influence the American higher education system. ⬇️ https://t.co/deNilDUtqW

— Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) September 23, 2024

The relevant committees identified over 8,800 research publications, backed with funding from the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community, that were coauthored with Chinese-based affiliates, according to the report. The majority of these publications were related to advanced research in “dual-use” technologies — technologies that have both a civilian and military application.

More than 2,000 of the research publications were conducted with Chinese coauthors who were “directly affiliated with the PRC’s defense research and industrial base,” according to the report.

In certain cases, the research was leveraged by China to make advancements in “fourth-generation nuclear weapons technology, artificial intelligence, advanced lasers, graphene semiconductors, and robotics,” according to the report.

The report also hones in on collaboration between joint U.S.-China-based institutes, such as a branch of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkley. These institutions are paired for the purposes of “academic cooperation” but actually conceal a sophisticated system for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise to the PRC, including to blacklisted entities linked to China’s defense and security apparatus, according to the report.

Similarly, there have also been separate concerns that the Confucius Institutes, which offer Chinese language and cultural programs at American universities, have been vying to conduct influence campaigns on American soil, according to a Government Accountability Office report from 2023. As of 2023, the number of Confucius Institutes at U.S. universities had plummeted from roughly 100 to five since 2019, in part due to these concerns and U.S. state and federal government pressure.

During the months the House committees’ investigation was conducted, Georgia Tech ultimately decided to sever ties with its Chinese counterpart, according to the report. UC Berkley told the committees it “has started the process of relinquishing all ownership” with its Chinese counterpart and is “in the early stages of unwinding the joint legal entity.”

“Georgia Tech did the right thing for US national security by shutting down its PRC-based joint institute, and UC Berkeley and other universities should follow suit,” Moolenaar told the DCNF, adding that the “Deterrent Act,” which would enact stricter regulations on American universities collaborating with foreign institutes, should be passed urgently.

Though it denies it, China has sought to undermine or take advantage of the U.S. through several methods, including through stealing or obtaining advanced technologies, cyberwarfare campaigns against critical U.S. infrastructure, domestic espionage activities, drug trafficking and election interference. Chinese-linked entities have also sought to buy up land throughout the U.S., despite concerns those entities are obligated to operate at the behest of the CCP, which the DCNF has investigated extensively.

Revelations surfaced in August that U.S.-funded research contributed to the creation of over 1,000 patents for Chinese-based entities, specifically in key fields such as semiconductors, chemical engineering, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

The relationship between the U.S. and China has grown more fraught under the Biden administration. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in November 2023 to try to improve diplomatic ties between the two nations, although it has seemed to do little to deter Beijing from hostile or adversarial behavior.

Sour relations were also a problem during the years of the Trump administration. The Trump administration imposed strict tariffs on China, and penalized China for conducting espionage activities in the U.S.