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First on Fox: According to a report by the New China Commission, American universities are educating thousands of Chinese nationals with the Chinese military (PLA).
One of the six universities they surveyed, Chinese nationals conducted federally funded research in sensitive areas such as nuclear engineering and computer science.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration failed to implement an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in 2020 that prohibits Chinese nationals from engaging in research on military ties.
The order is justified by the Chinese authorities using graduate students as “non-traditional collectors” of intelligence information.
Major universities face the calories of Chinese scholarship relations
Chinese President Xi Jinping is supervising his country to overturn U.S. bids in AI competitions.
In another university, information provided to the committee showed that half of Chinese nationals were pursuing a doctorate. The campus participates in federally funded research projects.
Each of the American universities surveyed – Maryland, Urbana, Illinois – Chimn, Carnegie Mellon, University of Southern California (USA), Purdue, Stanford – admitted students from China’s top military and defense research schools. These include seven defense sons of an elite group of institutions whose main mission is to improve military research.
Fox News Digital has contacted each of the U.S. universities listed in the report.
“University of Southern California has maintained strong safeguards to protect national security – requiring disclosure of foreign financial interests and affiliations, rigorously reviewing potential conflicts of interest and prohibiting participation in restricted foreign talent programs – we always have feedback on how to further strengthen the process,” the USC said in a statement in the report.
“We cannot allow U.S. taxpayer-funded research labs and classrooms as the venue for Beijing’s military ambitions,” said John Moolenaar, chairman of R-Mich.
These schools, including Peking University, Harbin Institute of Technology and Northwestern University of Technology, maintain extensive defense laboratories and partnerships with the State-owned Weapons Group.
An example is Beihang University, which has been on the list of U.S. entities since 2001. It has 9 major defense labs and “comply with the idea of XI Jinating.” The report said that Beijing students were found in every American university surveyed.
Harbin Engineering University was originally the PLA School of Military Engineering, representing 83% of the U.S. universities.
At the University of Maryland, 25% of Chinese students participated in federally funded research in the fall of 2024, but the university acknowledged that it did not track the research they conducted.
Major universities face the calories of Chinese scholarship relations
The Purdue University Campus Bell Tower can be seen from Ross-Ade Stadium on October 10, 2015 at West Lafayette, Indiana. (Scott Boehm via AP)
Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois and Zhijiang University jointly run the defense laboratory and the joint engineering institute with China Intelligence.
Trump recently said he would allow 600,000 Chinese students to enter U.S. universities, which sparked controversy – a number that exceeds the current admission level of American nationals
During the 2019-2020 academic year, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States reached 372,532, just like the pandemic on the 19th.
“I heard a lot of stories about ‘we won’t allow students’, but we will allow their students to come in. We will allow it. It’s very important – 600,000 students.”
The report also challenges universities often claim that foreign students help subsidize American classmates by paying higher tuition fees.
In one school, Chinese nationals account for more than 20% of their doctorate degrees. The population, but contributes only 0.2% of tuition income, most of its research is funded by federal grants, state subsidies, or university assistants. The committee wrote: “U.S. taxpayers are providing STEM training and laboratory access to Chinese nationals, many of which are linked to PLA.
Trump’s Chinese student visa drives “influence” in CCP, triggering alarm bells
Investigators found that teacher collaboration increases another risk. The University of Maryland reported at least 89 faculty partnerships and 15 exchange agreements with Chinese entities, while Purdue University chaired visits to 16 visits to sensitive departments such as electrical engineering and computer science at Chinese universities.
Officials acknowledge that the school did not completely distinguish between casual academic contact and long-term research links, leaving a supervision gap.
The committee also noted that professors at Purdue University traveled in another direction. The report said six Purdue faculty members were on leave in China, including two universities supervised by the Beijing Ministry of Defense, and another in the main national laboratory (described as a “central node” in China’s military integration system).
Since then, Purdue University has taken corrective measures and new safeguards to prevent foreign influence. The school banned foreign rival funds, strengthened research security and export controls, added new protections to intellectual property rights, and restricted leave with Chinese institutions.
The committee praised Purdue’s new approach as an example of other schools.
“We cannot allow U.S. taxpayer-funded research labs and classrooms as the venue for Beijing’s military ambitions,” said John Moolenaar, chairman of R-Mich. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In Illinois, faculty and staff work at a joint institute at the provincial capital university, an agency associated with Chinese defense agencies and intelligence services.
But during the investigation, Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois announced it would terminate dozens of agreements with Chinese universities. These include closing its flagship joint engineering institute with Huidong University, which has a defense laboratory and documenting its relationship with Chinese intelligence.
UIUC also terminated all joint degree programs with Chinese universities, canceled six “priority admission” agreements, making it easier for Chinese students to enter master’s programs, and ended a summer teacher training program with Shanghai institutions.
Members praised Illinois for “leading by example” by relaxation by dozens of Chinese partnerships.
Congressmen have suggested codifying Trump’s 2020 executive order into law, tightening visa screening and banning Chinese nationals from participating in U.S. government-funded research laboratories. They also urged universities to disclose to federal agencies the affiliation and funding sources of foreign students. Without such reforms, U.S. higher education will continue to train scientists and engineers “not for the benefit of the United States, but for the PLA.”
The committee staff also noted that the recent actions taken by the university will remain in touch with the China Scholarship Committee, a government-run student aid agency that they describe as part of Beijing’s “technology transfer agency.”
“We have determined that seven American universities have a common agreement with the CSC or a ten-year deadline with the CSC, and all of them have closed the CSC after the committee raised concerns.
Recent prosecutions show that the issue is not theoretical. In June, two Chinese students at the University of Michigan were charged in a biological disease case after trying to bring restricted materials into the country. In the second month, Chinese students were sentenced to surveillance after flying drones at the Norfolk Naval Station, while other students in Michigan were found guilty of trying to obtain U.S. military facilities.
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In recent years, other universities have also begun to establish partnerships with Chinese institutions. After a congressional review, schools including UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan have canceled joint institutions or collaborative programs, trend lawmakers say pressure shows that pressure is driving at least some schools to shrink their fields.
