China hawks in Congress are moving to stop the Chinese Communist Party from exploiting American research to advance its own interests at the expense of U.S. national security.
Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Representative Andy Barr (R., Ky.) are putting forward legislation to prevent foreign adversaries from exploiting research partnerships with U.S. colleges and universities, National Review has learned.
“For far too long, our adversaries have exploited American colleges and universities to advance their interests, while risking our national security and innovation. This bill seeks to protect American research and talent and ensure our adversaries are not benefiting from American institutions,” Cotton said.
The Protecting American Research and Talent Act would stop federal funding from going to universities for the purpose of fundamental research in collaboration with foreign entities tied to adversarial governments or their militaries.
It defines “collaboration” broadly to cover almost every joint academic activity, including sharing labs, data, joint ventures, fellowships, and advisory roles. The prohibition applies to universities as a whole and specific departments, projects, faculty, and campuses within them.
Chinese entities covered under the bill are institutions with known ties to civil-military fusion and individuals connected to those institutions. Persecuted groups within China are given an exception to the rules.
Otherwise, the bill creates an extremely narrow waiver threshold. Federal agencies can only approve funding if there are vital U.S. national security interests at stake, and the schools have less than 15 percent international enrollment. Of those international students, less than 5 percent can be from countries of concern, an official U.S. designation for foreign adversaries.
Agencies will be required to notify Congress of waivers and generate compliance reports explaining them.
The bill’s greatest impact would be to prevent China from gaining access to U.S. technological innovation and using it to advance Beijing’s civil-military fusion strategy of using private companies to further geopolitical goals.
“The CCP and other foreign adversaries repeatedly use sophisticated schemes to steal American research and advance their interests in the expense of American national security and innovation,” Barr said.
“This legislation seeks to stop that effort by increasing transparency and limiting federal flexibility to approve exemptions.”
Cotton and Barr’s legislation follows a report from the House Select Committee on the CCP detailing how the Biden administration’s Department of Defense spent $2.5 billion on research partnerships with institutions tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The Pentagon funded more than 1,400 research publications alongside Chinese entities and at least half the papers were developed with groups linked to China’s defense industrial base.
Earlier this year, Senator Jim Banks (R., Ind.), introduced similar legislation to prevent U.S. research from advancing China’s civil-military fusion strategy, as NR previously reported.
Cotton and Barr are both outspoken China hawks in their respective chambers. Cotton chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and Barr is a senior member of House committees on foreign affairs and China. Barr is currently running for Senate to replace outgoing Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).
Last week, the GOP-controlled House passed Barr’s legislation to hold China and its affiliates accountable for their role in perpetrating the fentanyl crisis. President Trump has repeatedly cited China’s production of fentanyl as a reason for imposing higher tariffs on Chinese imports.
Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft are widely considered major threats to U.S. national security and innovation. During trade talks with the Trump administration, CCP-affiliated hackers targeted House China Committee chairman John Moolenaar (R., Mich.) in an attempt to access valuable information. The incident was not an isolated case of Chinese cyber attackers going after U.S. officials.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s phone communications were targeted during a years-long, worldwide hacking campaign Chinese hackers perpetrated against more than 80 countries and hundreds of companies.
Institutions of higher education have also been the victims of recent Chinese espionage schemes. In August, a Chinese doctor was charged with stealing cancer research from the University of Texas and attempting to bring it back to his home country. Likewise, the Chinese Communist Party attempted to recruit spies and carry out espionage at Stanford University, student journalists uncovered in a shocking investigation.
American universities have been a premier target of broader Chinese influence efforts. China has poured billions into U.S. universities and sends hundreds of thousands of students to study at U.S. universities each year. International students coming from China usually pay full tuition, making them an indispensable cash cow for many schools.