'Serious concerns': GOP sounds alarm on taxpayer funds going to 'high risk' universities vulnerable to CCP

FIRST ON FOX: The House Select Committee on China is calling on the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pause a $67 million research security initiative, citing concerns that the universities leading the effort have engaged in problematic collaborations with Chinese military-linked institutions.

In a Tuesday letter to NSF Interim Director Brian Stone obtained by Fox News Digital, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, urged the agency to suspend funding for the "Safeguarding the Entire Community of the U.S. Research Ecosystem" (SECURE) initiative and conduct a comprehensive review of the participating institutions.

Moolenaar’s concern, expressed in the letter, is that several of those participating institutions, including Texas A&M University and the University of Washington, receive tens of millions from the grant despite ties to the CCP that the committee finds concerning.

"The program is intended to develop tools, data infrastructure, and analytic capabilities for assessing research-security risks," Moolenaar wrote. "Faculty from UW and TAMU – the same institutions now charged with designing systems and processes to protect taxpayer-funded research – have been collaborating with People’s Republic of China (PRC) defense research and industrial base entities, many of which are on various U.S. government national security entity lists, as detailed in this letter."

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The committee alleges the University of Washington collaborated on research with Chinese institutions tied to the CCP’s military and defense sector, including entities on U.S. government watchlists. The committee cited joint publications with PLA-linked organizations, China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and universities known as the "Seven Sons of National Defense," involving work in AI, advanced materials and other dual-use technologies.

The letter describes the university's ties as "high-risk research relationships with PRC military- and defense-linked institutions."

The University of Washington is designated to be awarded $50 million from the grant. 

Additionally, the note claims that Texas A&M partnered with Chinese defense-affiliated institutions, including the PLA’s National University of Defense Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology. They argue these collaborations, some involving federally funded research, raise national security concerns and could conflict with U.S. research security and export control laws.

Texas A&M is designated to be awarded $17 million from the grant. 

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"Institutions entrusted with U.S. taxpayer dollars to safeguard the nation’s research enterprise should not simultaneously enable foreign adversaries to access and exploit sensitive research and taxpayer-funded scientific advances," Moolenaar wrote.

"These joint research projects detailed above raise serious concerns about allocating taxpayer dollars for research security initiatives to institutions like TAMU and UW—institutions with documented and ongoing failures in safeguarding U.S. research from PRC defense entities," Moolenaar said, adding that it is "troubling that U.S. institutions that collaborate with China’s defense research and industrial base, its nuclear weapons programs, its mass surveillance infrastructure, and institutions on U.S. government national security lists are being entrusted to co-lead the development of national research security frameworks."

Moolenaar’s letter urges NSF to assess whether the institutions are complying with a range of federal requirements, including National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, and U.S. export control laws.

Moolenaar also raised concerns about potential violations of the Wolf Amendment, an appropriations restriction in effect since 2012 that prohibits NASA from engaging in bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government or Chinese government-affiliated organizations in NASA-funded research without specific certification.

Moolenaar’s letter concludes with four requests for NSF to respond to by March 31.

First, the congressman asks if NSF will pause its SECURE contract funding to conduct a "full review" and also requests that NSF provide the committee with the results of that review.

The letter also requests that NSF "provide the award and contract details for the SECURE Initiative" and asks whether NSF believes that "it is appropriate for universities to use U.S. taxpayer funds to conduct research in collaboration with known Chinese defense research and industrial base entities or entities implicated in human rights violations?"

"Will NSF update its terms and conditions to expressly prohibit the use of award funds to conduct research with, or for the benefit of, any entity that appears on a publicly available U.S. government entity list?" the last question in the letter asks. "If not, please explain why."

Fox News Digital reached out to Texas A&M University for comment, as well as Stanford University, who is mentioned in the letter as being a participant in the program.

"NSF will respond directly to the Committee’s letter," an NSF spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a University of Washington spokesperson said, "SECURE is a dynamic program that is not prescriptive but can assist universities of all sizes and other research entities to address research security concerns. The University of Washington takes research security and integrity very seriously. The UW directs significant effort and resources toward being leaders in research security and integrity, and goes above and beyond SECURE’s guidance and recommendations. Given the evolving landscape, we are regularly reviewing our guidelines and protocols."

Fox News Digital has extensively reported on rising concerns about the CCP's attempts to infiltrate the education system in the United States, including a sweeping report last year warning that America’s top universities have been quietly partnering with Chinese artificial intelligence labs deeply embedded in Beijing’s surveillance and security state and in some cases co-authoring thousands of papers with entities tied to oppressive efforts against Uyghur Muslims.