Blog

A new congressional investigation shows that American taxpayers subsidize post-graduate education and research for students with ties to the Chinese military. According to the report by the Select Committee on the CCP, “the PRC’s military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy explicitly calls for leveraging global academic exchanges to enhance its military and industrial capabilities.” It shows how the Chinese Communist Party takes advantage of American public and private universities.

Unfortunately, the Biden Administration and many universities have failed to take seriously the CCP threat. Because of this, they have narrowly interpreted or fully ignored restrictions meant to protect Americans’ education investments from supporting foreign adversaries. The Select Committee argues for a much broader understanding of how the CCP takes advantage of American institutions.

The real value in research partnerships lies not just in what is eventually published in open journals but in everything that happens behind the scenes: raw data exchange, joint lab access, iterative experiments and prototyping, pre-patent discoveries, and early insight into emerging capabilities. These are the intangible advantages that can accelerate an adversary’s military development—particularly when the collaborating entity is aligned with China’s defense industrial base.

The report recommends that the U.S. Department of State improve screening of visa applicants, and increase coordination with military and law enforcement agencies. It also calls for stronger protections against transnational repression, something states like California and Texas have done.