Two Chinese scientists were accused of smuggling biological materials to the United States for research in June. On the 15th, the Ministry of Education launched an investigation into the use of foreign funds by the University of Michigan, and accused a Chinese official of downplaying national security threats.
Federal authorities filed criminal charges against a Chinese scientist who brought “toxic fungi” into the United States last year for his girlfriend who worked in a laboratory at the University of Michigan. A few days later, another Chinese scientist who had just arrived in the United States was arrested on charges of “smuggling biological materials” to the University of Michigan laboratory.
The Ministry of Education said that these two “highly disturbing criminal cases” have raised concerns that the University of Michigan seems to be vulnerable to national security threats from China. Paul Moore, the chief investigative lawyer of the Ministry of Education, said that the University of Michigan has always downplayed the issue of “malicious foreign influence”, and recent developments show that the University of Michigan’s research institutions are easily undermined.
In the latest wave of investigations, the Ministry of Education asked the University of Michigan to submit financial reports related to research cooperation with overseas institutions, as well as information such as the content of the cooperation. The investigation found that the university’s public reporting on foreign funding was “incomplete, incorrect and untimely.”
After the two criminal charges broke, the university issued a statement condemning “any actions that are harmful to national security” and immediately reviewed its regulations related to research security.
The Ministry of Education responded that the university has a history of ignoring the risks of co-research with Chinese institutions, specifically naming Ann Chih Lin, director of the school’s Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly stated that the threat of China stealing technology from the United States is “exaggerated.”
The Ministry of Education said that Lin’s blatant disregard for the national security concerns of the university’s largest source of research funding – American taxpayers – is “particularly disturbing.”
Trump’s policy priorities include increasing transparency in foreign donations and cooperation with American universities, especially research funding and personnel exchanges related to China, which must be open and transparent. Similar investigations have also been launched into Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.
The Republican Congressional Caucus has also called on American universities to cut ties with Chinese research collaborations, arguing that China uses such relationships to steal American technology. The University of Michigan has ended its partnership with a university in Shanghai after Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives pressured it to do so, citing “national security risks.”
