According to informed sources, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co., which has been blacklisted by the United States, is secretly funding cutting-edge research at American universities, including Harvard University, through an independent foundation in Washington under the guise of a competition.
It has been revealed through Bloomberg’s review of relevant documents and information provided by insiders that Huawei is the sole sponsor of a cutting-edge technology research competition that has awarded millions of dollars in prizes since its launch in 2022. The competition has attracted hundreds of proposals from scientists around the world, including those from top US universities that prohibit their researchers from collaborating with Huawei.
The competition is managed by the Optica Foundation, a branch of the nonprofit professional association Optica, whose members conduct research in optics, the foundation of technologies such as communications, biomedical diagnostics, and lasers.
A confidential document reviewed by Bloomberg states that the foundation “does not need to indicate Huawei as the source of competition funding or project sponsor,” and “the existence and content of this agreement and the relationship between the two parties should be considered confidential information.”
Huawei’s spokesperson, as cited by Bloomberg, stated that the company and the Optica Foundation established the competition to support global research and promote academic exchange. The spokesperson mentioned that Huawei’s name is kept confidential to prevent the competition from being seen as a promotional activity and is not done with malicious intent.
These findings reveal a strategy employed by Huawei, based in Shenzhen, China, where despite US restrictions over the past few years due to concerns that Huawei’s technology could be used as a spy tool by the Chinese Communist Party, Huawei can still circumvent restrictions in funding international research.
Applicants for the competition, university officials, and a judge of the competition who spoke to Bloomberg after the interviews mentioned that they only became aware of Huawei’s role in funding the project afterwards. Some of the applicants interviewed by Bloomberg expressed their belief that the funding came from the foundation, not a foreign entity.
Optica’s website lists opportunities such as 11 “Early Career Prizes & Fellowships.” Apart from the competition sponsored by Huawei – named the Optica Foundation Challenge, the rest of the competitions specify individual or corporate donors.
The Huawei-sponsored competition, kept confidential, offers a million-dollar prize annually, 20 times more than the second-most lucrative annual cash prize listed on the website.
In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, Liz Rogan, CEO of Optica, mentioned that some foundation donors, including American donors, prefer to remain anonymous, following a not-so-uncommon practice.
Rogan stated that Huawei’s donation underwent review by external legal advisors and received approval from the foundation’s board of directors. She emphasized the foundation’s full transparency regarding funding and sponsorship of foundation projects.
Due to concerns of losing federal funding, including from the Pentagon and the National Science Foundation, many US universities have enforced distancing regulations between researchers and Huawei in recent years. Universities have also heightened policies requiring scholars to disclose foreign funding.
Optica Foundation’s 2023 annual report listed the “Top Tier Donors” on page 22. Over the organization’s two-decade history, donors contributing over a million dollars place Huawei second. Tech giants like Google and Meta Platforms donated over $200,000, with Intel among those donating over $100,000.
The report does not specify the timing, purpose, or amount of such donations by these contributors.
According to an insider cited by Bloomberg, Huawei became a member of Optica’s parent organization, Optica, at the end of 2021, committing to sponsor the competition.
Confidential documents accessed by Bloomberg indicate Huawei’s plan to provide ten years of funding support for the competition, totaling $10 million based on past payment patterns.
Kevin Wolf, a partner at Akin Gump specializing in export control, informed Bloomberg that the foundation’s secretive funding arrangement likely does not violate US Department of Commerce sanctions prohibiting individuals and organizations from sharing technology with Huawei.
Wolf explained that such regulations do not apply to the type of research collected by the competition – imminent publications of scientific research. However, he added that if Huawei faces sanctions from the US Treasury Department, the activity could become unlawful.
Security experts researching this issue point out the lack of transparency in such arrangements, violating the spirit of policies requiring researchers to disclose acceptance of foreign funding at universities and US funding institutions.
They also suggest some resulting research could have both defense and commercial implications. The Optica Foundation’s selected “interests” topics in an online article include “global communication network solutions in the deep sea and space” and “high-sensitivity optical sensors and detectors.”
Citing James Mulvenon, an internationally renowned expert on Chinese espionage activities and military issues, Bloomberg highlighted his comment on the prestigious research foundation accepting anonymous funding from a Chinese company. He stated, “It is not flattering for a prestigious research foundation to accept money from a Chinese company that has raised so many national security concerns for the US government.”