ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The chairman of the U.S. House’s Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party called on the University of Michigan to end its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University due to security risks.
U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar sent a letter on Oct. 31 to university President Santa Ono, urging the school to close the joint institution over multiple national security concerns, MLive reports. Most recently, federal charges were filed last month against five Chinese students who allegedly photographed the 2023 Northern Strike training exercise at Camp Grayling. Northern Strike is one of the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest reserve component readiness exercises.
In Aug. 2023, the five male students, who were students at UM as part of the joint program, were confronted at night near the remote military site by a sergeant major with the Utah National Guard, according to AP News. One of the students allegedly told the sergeant, “We are media,” before collecting their belongings and agreeing to leave the area.
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The FBI says the men had booked a room at a nearby motel a week before they were spotted at Camp Grayling. The students are accused of misleading investigators about the trip and conspiring to clear their phones of the photos, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. They have been charged with conspiracy, making false statements to investigators and destroying records during the federal investigation.
Moolenaar’s letter says the partnership also poses potential risks to U.S. academic research integrity.
“Institute researchers worked on projects to improve CT imaging technology for detecting flaws in advanced military equipment, which appears to have leveraged Department of Defense-funded research from University of Michigan faculty,“ he wrote. “Given these concerning developments, I strongly encourage you to shutter the partnership between UM and Shangai Jiao Tong and take necessary steps to safeguard the integrity of federally funded research at UM and carefully vet international students studying on UM’s campus.”
Similarly, on Oct. 11, the Michigan Legislative Working Group for National Security sent letters to Ono and Governor Gretchen Whitmer, pushing for answers on how the university ensures the security of its research and how it vets international students.
What is the University of Michigan/Shanghai Jiao Tong University Partnership?
The partnership between the two universities, which started in 2006, aims to “cultivate a new generation of leaders able to cooperate and innovate in a global context,” according to its website. The partnership began with engineering and later expanded to several University of Michigan schools and departments, including business, science and the School of Information.
Every year, more than 150 SJTU students attend UM through the dual degree or joint graduate programs.
UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech End Partnership with Chinese Universities
The CCP committee previously issued a report in September that said hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal research funding over the last decade has contributed to China’s technological advancements and military modernization.
According to the report, lawmakers uncovered that UC Berkeley’s partnership with Tsinghua University and the University of Pittsburgh’s partnership with Sichuan University “serve as conduits for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise to China, including to entities linked to China’s defense machine and the security apparatus it uses to facilitate human rights abuses.”
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“For years, the Committee on Education and the Workforce has pushed for greater transparency regarding foreign investment in American universities, and this investigation just further proved why it’s necessary,” said Chairwoman Virginia Foxx. “Our research universities have a responsibility to avoid any complicity in the CCP’s atrocious human rights abuses or attempts to undermine our national security. It’s time for any school with this type of partnership to cut all ties, it’s time to make the DETERRENT Act law, and it’s time to get serious about countering China.”
As a result, Moolenaar says UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech are in the process of ending their affiliations with their respective Chinese academic institutions.
