Washington (AP) – House Republicans are calling for seven US universities to reduce relationships with a Chinese scholarship program that the legislator calls a “shameful mechanism” to steal the Chinese government technology.
In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, the leaders of the House Select Committee for the Chinese Communist Party are concerned about concerns about the partnerships of the schools with the China scholarship council, a study of study financed by China.
The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese doctoral students at US universities every year. After graduation, you have to return to China for two years. In the letters sent on Tuesday, the Republicans described this as a threat to national security.
“CSC pretends to be a common scholarship program between US and Chinese institutions. In reality, however, it is a technology transfer effort that is used by CCP that uses US institutions and directly supports China’s military and scientific growth,” wrote the Republican MP Mool Moolsar, chairman of the Committee.
The Chinese message did not immediately answer a comment when asked by the Associated Press.
Dartmouth said on Wednesday that it has been fewer than 10 participants in the program in the past ten years and has already decided to end his participation. Notre Dame said it started to end his connection with the program at the beginning of this year. The University of Tennessee said that she also received the letter and checked the committee’s application.
Letters were also sent to Temple University and at the locations of the University of California in Davis, Irvine and Riverside. The President of the University of California, Dr. Michael V. Drake, said the university followed all federal laws and works with the government to protect sensitive research. “At the same time, we believe that international students and global academic partnerships for scientific progress, economic growth and our educational mission are of crucial importance,” said Drake’s office in a statement.
The House Committee said that a review of the “infiltration” of the program of US universities is opened and records on the program of all seven institutions are required.
The partnerships of the universities with the Council can bring up to 15 doctoral students to Dartmouth a year together with up to 60 in Temple and 40 in Notre lady. Some schools divide the visitor costs with China. Dartmouth, for example, covers 50% of the tuition fees and offers doctoral students a scholarship.
Among other things, legislators call for documents that show whether scholarship has worked on the research work financed by the US government.
President Donald Trump and House Republicans presented the Chinese students to the United States in May. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said the United States would revoke visas from some Chinese students who study in “critical areas”. During his first term, Trump circumscribed the visas for students who were associated with China’s “Military Civil Fusion Strategy”.
Many US universities recognize the need to improve research, but be careful of the treatment of Chinese scientists with hostility and suspicion. They said that only compact numbers were involved in spy.
China is the second largest country of origin for foreign students in the USA, only behind India. In the academic year 2023-24, more than 270,000 international students came from China and were about a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. For a majority of them, their tuition fees are paid by their families rather than the Chinese government. Many stay in the United States while some return to China after graduation.
Moolenaar has made it priority to end partnerships between US universities and China. In May he pushed the Duke University to lower her relationships with a Chinese university, and explained Chinese students to gain access to nationwide financed research from Duke. Under pressure from the committee, the Eastern Michigan University ended a partnership with two Chinese universities in June.
Last year, the House Republicans showed a report that hundreds of millions of dollars went into research work, which ultimately increased Chinese advances in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. The report argued that China’s academic cooperation as a “trojan horses for the technology transfer” served and China accused the “insidious” exploitation of academic cooperation.
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Associated Press Writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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