Politicians urge crackdowns on research relationships with Taiwanese institutions, revealing how U. S. taxpayer-funded applications gas China’s military technology advancements
Concerns about the safety of U.S. China school partnerships are raised in a new House committee report, which warns that these collaborations are assisting international scientific and defense advancements.
According to a Committee on Education and the Workforce news release, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC ) and House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (R-MI ) found that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding over the past ten have contributed to China’s technological advancements and military modernization.
” The results of our joint investigation are alarming”, Moolenaar ( pictured ) told The College Fix in an email statement.
The CCP “is driving its military progress through US taxpayer-funded analysis and through joint]U. S. China ] universities”, he said.
The House report says that millions of dollars in U. S. national research funding have helped” the PRC reach advancements in…hypersonic arms, artificial intelligence, third generation nuclear weapons systems, and silicon technology”.
Additionally, this commitment to the PRC is “due to a lack of legal handrails”, according to the document.
Chairwoman Foxx told The College Fix in an email statement that the Committee on Education and the Workforce has long advocated for greater transparency regarding unusual investment in British institutions.” This investigation only further demonstrated why it’s necessary,” Foxx said.
Foxx remarked that American colleges are obligated to” to prevent any involvement in the CCP’s horrible human rights violations or attempts to undermine our federal safety.”
She urged” cutting all relations” at any college that has connections to China.
” It’s time to get serious about countering China”, she told The Fix.
The Georgia Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, and the University of Pittsburgh have hosted Chinese research schools on their campuses, though Georgia Tech and Berkeley have since “dissolved their partnerships”, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Georgia Tech shutting its cooperative institute with the PRC was the right choice, according to Moolenaar, who claimed other universities should follow suit.
Also, the U. S. needs to “ban study collaboration with dismissed entities, adopt stricter guardrails on emerging technologies research, and keep British universities accountable”, he said.
At least one of the institutions that was accused of cooperating has begun looking into ways to shield its analysis from international control.
According to spokesman Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley continues to take concerns about study security extremely seriously and has implemented innovative procedures to foster and monitor international collaborations and safeguard the available research environment.
Further: Georgia Tech cuts relationships with’ removed’ China university
The Fix heard from an expert about how these partnerships have broader effects on administrative integrity and intellectual freedom.
According to Sarah McLaughlin, senior researcher at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression,” combined academic initiatives between U.S. and Chinese institutions can provide significant opportunities for collaboration.”
But, she added that” they can also pose unique risks to the British universities involved in the partnership as well as to the rights of the faculty and students.”
She added that, according to The Fix, one of the main drawbacks of these academic cooperation is in the schools ‘ own management decisions rather than in the institutions themselves.
According to McLaughlin, “universities may very well feel pressure to provide both the laws and perceptions of the Chinese authorities in their functioning of these schools” in order to maintain” the partnership over protecting intellectual freedom and organisational principles.”
Administrators may “avoid certain issues and topics at their campuses in the United States, such as democracy in Hong Kong or Uyghurs ‘ rights, so that they do n’t upset their partnerships in China,” she said.
The professor suggested that schools” craft policies that ensure that academic freedom is protected in these institutes, that universities are committed to ending the partnership if faculty rights are violated, and that universities wo n’t let collaborations abroad improperly influence their operations at home.”
Georgia Tech’s Vice President of Communications Abbigail Tumpey directed The Fix to the Association of American Universities, which did not respond when asked for comment via internet.
In the past two days, The College Fix has also emailed UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research Katherine Yelick, the American Council on Education, and Pitt’s Senior Director of External Communications Jared Stonesifer and Director of Media Relations Angela Barajas Prendiville for comment via internet. Few responded.
The report from the House committee recommends” strengthening the scaffolding around research cooperation” and more strict supervision of institutions ‘ reporting of unusual items and deals.
Also, it suggests adopting the DETERRENT Act. The law” slashes the threshold for foreign gifts to be reported to colleges and universities from$ 250, 000 to$ 50, 000, with a stricter$ 0 threshold for nations and entities of concern.”
Recently, China maintained a grip on British college campuses through its Confucius Institutes, which have practically all closed. Nevertheless, China has reopened some Confucius Institutes under another title, The Fix originally reported.
American universities have signed contracts with China worth more than$ 2.3 billion over the past ten years.
Less: This group continues to fight for Chinese universities to leave.
Photo: Rep. John Moolenaar/Youtube
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