Pentagon-funded research at colleges has aided the Chinese military, a
House GOP report says
[September 06, 2025]
By DIDI TANG and COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over a recent 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 many
blacklisted by the U.S. government for working with the Chinese
military, a congressional investigation has found.
The report, released 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
report.
“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,” it said.
The Pentagon and didn't immediately respond to an Associated Press
request for comment.
The congressional report said some officials at the Defense Department
argued research should remain open as long as it is “neither controlled
nor classified.”
The report makes several recommendations to scale back U.S. research
collaboration with China. It also backs new legislation 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. government identifies as safety risks.
The Chinese Embassy on Friday called the report “groundless.” “We oppose
it,” the embassy said.
Beijing has in the past said 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 80-page report 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 technology. Amid pressure from Republicans,
several U.S. universities have ended their joint programs with Chinese
schools in recent years.
The new report focuses more narrowly on the Defense Department and its
billions of dollars in annual research funding.
The committee's investigation identified 1,400 research papers published
between June 2023 and June 2025 that acknowledged support from the
Pentagon and were done in collaboration with Chinese partners. The
publications were funded by some 700 defense grants worth more than $2.5
billion. Of the 1,400 publications, more than half involved
organizations affiliated with China's defense research and industrial
base.
Dozens of those organizations were flagged for potential security
concerns on U.S. government lists, though federal law does not prohibit
research collaborations with them. The Defense Department money
supported research in fields including hypersonic technology,
semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced materials and
next-generation propulsion.
Many of the projects have clear military applications, according to the
report.
In one case, 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.
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The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense,
is seen from the air, Aug. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The scientist, who has done research on high-energy materials,
nitrogen and high-pressure physics — all of which are relevant to
nuclear weapons development — has been honored in China for his work
to advance the country's national development goals, the report
said. It called the case “a deeply troubling example” of how Beijing
can leverage U.S. taxpayer-funded research to further its weapons
development.
In a statement, Carnegie Science said 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 said.
Carnegie Science also disputed the report's assertion that the work
was funded by the Pentagon, saying it came from the National Science
Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program.
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 study high-stakes
decision-making in uncertain environments, which has direct
applications for electronic warfare and cyber defense, the report
said. 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 developing defense technology, 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 report takes issue with Defense Department policies that do not
explicitly forbid research partnerships with foreign institutions
that appear on U.S. government 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 legislation 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 Education Department official said the report “highlights
the vulnerability of federally funded research to foreign
infiltration on America’s campuses.” Under Secretary of Education
Nicholas Kent said 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 said 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.
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