过去十年间，美国与中国在大学层面的合作已使数十亿美元的联邦资金流向北京，这些资金支持了可能用于军事目的的关键技术开发，众议院共和党议员发布了一份新的报告指出。
该报告提到，在航空航天武器、人工智能、核技术以及半导体技术等领域，当美国研究者与中方同行合作时，美国税金助长了中国的技术进步和军力现代化。周一发布的这份报告由众议院中国共产党委员会和教育与劳动力委员会的共和党议员共同起草，对之前广受赞誉的科研合作可能带来的国家安全风险表示担忧，并呼吁加强保障措施并执行更为有力的监督。
调查持续一年之久，重点关注高等教育如何在中国与美国科技领域的经济竞争中扮演角色。尽管美国家庭在秘密研究项目方面没有直接参与，但他们的工作往往处于世界顶尖水平，有可能转化为军用能力。
本月，美国众议院已经通过了几十项与中国相关的法案，并明确目标要与北京在全球技术领域展开竞争。这些法案尚未在参议院获得批准，旨在禁止中国无人机的使用、限制中国关联生物科技公司进入美国市场并切断远程中国对高端美国芯片的技术访问。其他措施还包括遏制北京对美国大学和研究机构影响力的手段以及恢复特朗普政府时期的计划，目的是清除中国间谍活动和盗窃知识产权的情况。尽管这些努力引发了种族歧视的担忧，但也存在维持促进两国之间交流和理解的互惠程序的能力。
合作研究在美国学者与中国之间减少的原因也与特朗普政府打击间谍活动的计划在2022年结束有关，根据研究人员的说法。
美国副国务卿科特·坎贝尔今年早些时候在国际关系委员会论坛上表示，他欢迎更多的中国学生学习人文学科和社会科学课程，并指出“不包括粒子物理学”。
瓦萨尔学院的社会学和科技与社会教授阿比盖尔·科普林表达了对学术交流可能损害以及科学参与造成的潜在伤害的担忧，她认为这些交流促进理解、有助于稳定关系。
“显然，美国联邦资金不应用于推进中国的军事能力，但我们也需要更多地讨论哪些问题不是国家安全的问题，并且过度安全化会带来负面影响。减少人与人的直接互动正加剧当前中美关系的迅速恶化。”科普林说。
该报告指出约有8800篇由国防部或美国情报机构资助的研究人员与中国研究人员合作的出版物，其中包括一些与中国的国防研究和工业基础有关联者。这份报告显示，此类研究“为外国敌对国提供后门途径”，而这些能力正是保护国家免受其侵略所必需的。
众议院调查还指出了一些美国大学与中国之间的问题性联合机构被描述为潜在的风险，报告称：“这隐藏了一个复杂的系统，用于向中国转移关键美国技术和专长。”
通过这些联合机构，美国研究人员和科学家、包括进行联邦资助研究的人士前往中国与中方学者合作并指导他们，并培训中国学生。这份报告说：“这就直接形成了将他们的科研能力传递给中国的管道。”
乔治亚理工学院在报告中被提及因与中国天津大学及中国深圳政府共同建立的联合机构而受到点名，该学院为在深圳地区进行的合作辩护称，其重点在于教育学生而非研究，并表示报告中的指控未得到证实。
“在GTSI并未进行任何研究、亦无技术转移发生，并且没有任何联邦资金提供给中国。”该校声明中写道。
然而，在9月6日，乔治亚理工学院宣布将终止与天津大学及中国政府深圳的合作。该合作被指因美国商务部在2020年指控天津大学窃取商业机密而不再可行。
国会报告也提到了清华大学伯克利深圳联合学院，这是加州大学伯克利分校与中国清华大学于2015年在深圳开设的一个专注于“战略性新兴行业”的机构。
加州大学伯克利分校的科研人员“仅进行其结果在全球范围内公开发布的研究”，学校并未意识到该校教职员工在该学院从事任何其他目的的研究，“研究安全”一事，伯克利大学副校长罗杰说：“我们非常重视。”
目前，加州大学伯克利分校也正在取消与联合机构的伙伴关系，并指出无法监督非伯克利员工在其内部进行的科研活动。
对于加州大学匹兹堡分校被点名因为其与中国四川大学的合作参与此议题，该校声明表示未获咨询并并未与众议院中国共产党委员会合作进行调查，因此不便评论。
新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：US-China research has given Beijing’s military technology a boost, House GOP says
新闻日期：2024-09-23
原文摘要：
Partnerships between the U.S. and China at universities over the past decade have allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to aid Beijing in developing critical technology that could be used for military purposes, congressional Republicans asserted in a new report. The report said U.S. tax dollars have contributed to China's technological advancement and military modernization when American researchers worked with their Chinese peers in areas such as hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, nuclear technology and semiconductor technology. The report, released Monday by Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Education and Workforce Committee, raised concerns over the national security risks of scientific collaborations that were once celebrated. It urged stronger safeguards and more robust enforcement. The committees conducted a yearlong investigation into higher education's role in the economic rivalry with China, especially when it comes to technology. While American universities don't engage in secret research projects, their work — often among the best in the world — has the potential to be turned into military capabilities. The U.S. House of Representatives this month approved about two dozen China-related bills, with a clear goal to compete with Beijing in the tech field. The bills, which still need to be approved by the Senate, seek to ban Chinese-made drones, restrict China-linked biotech companies in the U.S. market, and cut off remote Chinese access to advanced U.S. computer chips. Other measures include those to curb Beijing's influence on U.S. college campuses and to revive a Trump-era program meant to root out China's spying and theft of intellectual property at American universities and research institutes. That's despite such efforts raising concerns about racial profiling and the ability to keep up exchange programs that boost tolerance between the two countries. Collaboration among U.S.-based scholars and China also declined as a result of the Trump administration's anti-spying program, which ended in 2022, researchers say. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said at a forum by the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year that he would welcome more Chinese students studying humanities and social sciences but “not particle physics" in American schools. Abigail Coplin, an assistant professor of sociology and science, technology and society at Vassar College, expressed concerns about the potential harm to academic exchange and scientific engagement, which she said promote understanding and help stabilize relations. “Clearly American federal funding should not be used to advance China’s military capabilities, but there also needs to be more conversation about what is not an issue of national security and the negative ramifications of over-securitization,” Coplin said. “Decreased person-to-person engagement is contributing to the rapidly fraying U.S.-China relationship at the moment.” Monday's report identified about 8,800 publications that involved U.S. researchers who received funding from the Department of Defense or the U.S. intelligence community working with Chinese researchers — many of whom were affiliated with China's defense research and industrial base. Such research is “providing back-door access to the very foreign adversary nation whose aggression these capabilities are necessary to protect against,” the report said. The House investigation also flagged what it described as problematic joint institutes between U.S. and Chinese universities, which the report said “conceal a sophisticated system for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise” to China. Through those institutes, American researchers and scientists, including those who conduct federally funded research, have traveled to China to work with and advise Chinese scholars and train Chinese students, the report said. "This creates a direct pipeline for the transfer of the benefit of their research expertise” to China, the report said. The Georgia Institute of Technology, which is named in the report for its joint Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, defended its work in China, saying it was focused on educating students, not research, and that the report's claims are “unsubstantiated." “There was no research conducted at GTSI, no facilitation of technology transfer, and no federal funding provided to China,” the university said in a statement. However, Georgia Tech announced Sept. 6 that it would discontinue its participation in the joint institute with Tianjin University and the government of Shenzhen, a city in southern China. Georgia Tech said the partnership was “no longer tenable” after the U.S. Commerce Department accused Tianjin University in 2020 of theft of trade secrets. The congressional report also identified Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, which the University of California, Berkeley, and China's Tsinghua University opened in 2015 in the city of Shenzhen to focus on “strategic emerging industries,” according to the institute's website. Berkeley's researchers “engage only in research whose results are always openly disseminated around the world" and the school was “not aware of any research by Berkeley faculty at TBSI conducted for any other purpose,” Katherine Yelick, the university's vice chancellor for research, said in a statement. Berkeley also is unwinding its partnership, saying it has no oversight of research activities conducted only by non-Berkeley employees at the joint institute. The U.S. university has decided “to start the process of relinquishing all ownership” in the Shenzhen school “after careful consideration, which began several months ago," Yelick said. She said Berkeley "takes concerns about research security very seriously — including those concerns voiced by Congress.” The University of Pittsburgh, which is named in the report for its cooperation with Sichuan University, said it could not comment because the Pennsylvania university “was not consulted and did not work with the House Select Committee throughout the investigation."
