Recently, top Chinese Communist Party officials have issued two directives, urging the education sector to attract high-level foreign science and engineering universities to establish campuses in China. However, in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s enthusiastic embrace, a top American science and engineering university has recently urgently withdrawn from China; the US House of Representatives has also warned that US-China joint venture universities will transfer technology to Chinese defense entities.
In recent days, the top five science and engineering institute in the US, the Georgia Institute of Technology, has announced that following a review by the US Congress of its collaboration with Tianjin University, the institute will terminate its research and education partnerships in Tianjin and Shenzhen, China.
This comes at a time when the Chinese Communist Party is encouraging the introduction of high-tech from overseas. Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called for the implementation of talent policies of “bringing in” and “going out” at the National Education Conference on September 10, aiming to expand international academic exchanges and educational research cooperation.
At the 20th Central Committee meeting in July, the Chinese Communist Party proposed strengthening the construction of basic disciplines, emerging disciplines, cross-disciplinary studies, and fostering top talents, emphasizing “encouraging high-level foreign science and engineering universities to cooperate in running schools in China.”
In 2016, the Georgia Institute of Technology collaborated with Tianjin University and the Shenzhen Municipal Government to establish the Georgia Tech Shenzhen campus, primarily teaching engineering and other professional master’s degree students as well as students studying abroad in the summer.
In January of this year, the Georgia Institute of Technology announced that researchers at the Tianjin International Nanoparticle and Nanosystem Center in Atlanta had created the world’s first functional semiconductor made of graphene, a nano-material, which could potentially increase the computing speed of electronic products. Both the US and China consider semiconductors as strategic industries with both civilian and military applications, including quantum computing and advanced weapon systems.
In May of this year, the US House of Representatives’ Special Commission on US-China Strategic Competition singled out three US-China joint research institutions in a report released on Monday (September 23), including the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute (GTSI), along with the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) and Sichuan University Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI).
The US House’s Special Commission on US-China Strategic Competition, along with the Education and Labor Committee, released a majority staff report detailing how the Chinese Communist Party exploits research funded by the US federal government, as well as partnerships between American and Chinese universities related to defense, to achieve breakthroughs in military and critical technology.
The report outlines how the Chinese Communist Party has been acquiring US technology and expertise strategically through collaborative research between US and Chinese universities. Using academic cooperation as a cover, the CCP matches prestigious American universities with Chinese universities, but in reality, it “conceals a complex system for transferring critical American technology and expertise to China, including to entities on blacklists related to the Chinese military and security apparatus.”
At a roundtable on September 23, Rep. Muller highlighted: “Georgia Tech has been cooperating with a university that is effectively on a blacklist for 10 years, establishing a joint educational program. We found that they are conducting research in complex technical areas. You can imagine that artificial intelligence, advanced physics, all of these applications that can be used for military purposes can actually be used against American soldiers.”
Regarding US-China scientific cooperation, Anders Corr, founder of CORR Analytics and publisher of Political Risk magazine, told Epoch Times that the US should not be sharing technological knowledge with the Chinese Communist Party.
“The US and its allies should have long ago decoupled our scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical expertise from China (the CCP), all the way from professional scientists to undergraduates. When our own students perform so poorly in these subjects, we have no business educating the Chinese in these subjects. Subsidizing the transition of students from Chinese citizens to local students may require government subsidies for STEM programs, but that’s okay. STEM is the foundation of the economic and military strength upon which democratic nations rely.”
Lucia Dunn, an economics professor at Ohio State University, stated to Epoch Times that US universities cooperating with China damages the interests of American students.
“The influx of Chinese students often pushes American students out of the courses they need, even out of the universities they may want to attend. This weakens the US workforce and hinders diversity efforts.”
“Some may argue that in terms of mathematical ability, American students cannot compete with Chinese students. If that’s really the case, then US educational institutions have a responsibility to ensure that American students attain the skills they need. Relying on ‘imports’ to solve this problem may never be a stable long-term solution.”
In the past thirty years, China has established ten independent Sino-foreign joint venture universities, three of which are partnered with American universities. These include the Shanghai New York University, the Wenzhou-Kean University, and the Kunshan Duke University, which are collaborations between East China Normal University and New York University, Wenzhou University and Kean University, and Wuhan University with Duke University, respectively.
Additionally, China has several non-independent Sino-foreign collaborative institutions, such as the Sino-French Engineering School at Beihang University, the Sino-French College at Renmin University of China, and the ParisTech Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Furthermore, there are many projects involving collaboration between Chinese and foreign universities, such as the Confucius Institutes. Confucius Institutes collaborate with foreign universities to offer language, cultural, historical, and philosophical courses. However, the mission of the Confucius Institutes extends beyond this.
A report by the National Endowment for Democracy in 2021 revealed that the Confucius Institutes serve as a bridge, strengthening relationships between American and Chinese universities. Building on this foundation, many American universities have established more collaborations with Chinese universities, particularly in technology.
The report listed over twenty American universities hosting Confucius Institutes, all of which have developed technological collaborations with Chinese universities. However, these Chinese universities directly support the Chinese military-industrial complex. For instance, New York’s Alfred University collaborated with China University of Geosciences.
In May 2023, Rep. Gallagher, chairman of the House’s Special Commission on US-China Strategic Competition, wrote to Secretary of Defense Austin and President of Alfred University, stating that China University of Geosciences had participated in classified Chinese military defense projects and was involved in the hypersonic weapon research program at Alfred University, which was funded by the US Department of Defense.
Gallagher stated: “Of utmost concern is the fact that $17 million of US taxpayers’ money is being used to fund advanced weapons-related research at a university actively partnering with a Chinese research institute in cooperation with the Chinese military. The Chinese Communist Party uses Confucius Institutes to project soft power, which is no secret, but it’s now time to expose how they use these Confucius Institutes to build China’s hard power weapons for use against Americans in future conflicts.”
Examples of other American universities collaborating with Chinese universities with military ties include Arizona State University with Sichuan University, William Mary College with Beijing Normal University, Emory University with Nanjing University, Purdue University with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, among others.
Dunn emphasized that the technologies contained within the education of American universities in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine are crucial assets for the American industrial and military sectors. “I believe that some oversight by the government regarding these collaborative projects is absolutely necessary, and if risks are assessed, such collaborative relationships should be terminated.”
As early as 2020, before the congressional investigation into the collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and Tianjin University, Tianjin University was blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce for allegedly stealing US technology for military purposes.
In addition to Tianjin University, 11 other Chinese universities have been placed on the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List, including Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beihang University, National University of Defense Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, and Xinjiang Police College.
Corr noted: “All Chinese universities—because they are controlled by the CCP—should be on the Entity List.”