The Trump administration is putting American universities on notice over their cozy relationships with foreign entities that pose national-security risks.
The Department of War has announced that 30 U.S. academic institutions have been ordered to immediately conduct comprehensive audits of their academic, financial, and research relationships with foreign entities of concern.
These notifications address active institutional ties and collaborations with foreign entities identified under Section 1286 of the FY19 NDAA, as well as organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes. Executed by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, this action is designed to protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft and adversarial exploitation.
"The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security," said Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. "Institutions that receive funding from American taxpayers must uphold the highest standards of research security, and these mandated audits will ensure accountability across the board."
ALSO SEE: NatSec First: DoW Puts 30 Universities on Notice Over Research Ties to Foreign Adversaries
As stipulated in the memo, universities must do risk-assessment audits in order to remain eligible for future federal research funding.
To maintain eligibility for future federal research funding, the notified universities must complete a comprehensive audit of all identified foreign collaborations, assess the exposure of sensitive or export-controlled research, and implement strict mitigation plans, including the termination of problematic partnerships. Institutions are required to report their findings and actions directly to the Department no later than August 31, 2026.
The War Department statement explicitly referenced China, particularly its “Confucius Institutes.”
As RedState editor Susie Moore recently covered, a Stanford aerospace expert with extensive experience reviewing U.S. fighter-engine programs spent nearly a month lecturing and advising researchers at a blacklisted Chinese defense university.
A new report from journalist Natalie Winters reveals an alarming arrangement that appears to completely undermine that firewall.
The U.S. government has restricted exports to China’s Beihang University since 2001 over missile-related concerns. Yet in May 2025, longtime Stanford aeronautics professor Brian Cantwell spent nearly a month at Beihang under what the Chinese university described as an “expertise introduction” program.
The highly disturbing report exacerbates long-standing concerns about foreign exchange students coming to the United States and working in scientific fields that are sensitive for national security.
The latest comprehensive Open Doors figures show that American colleges and universities hosted 265,919 students from China during the 2024-25 academic year. China remained America's second-largest source of international students, behind India.
More broadly, 57 percent of all international students in the United States were studying STEM subjects. That is a blaring red siren if you are concerned at all about national security.
READ MORE: China Found a Workaround: Stanford Aerospace Expert Trained Researchers at Blacklisted University
As a former International Programs Manager at Bard College, a liberal arts college in New York, I can aver that foreign students are virtually rubber-stamped by universities with minimal security screening.
At the University of Iowa, studying for a master’s degree in international studies, I witnessed hundreds of Chinese students at the university studying in dual-use scientific fields, including nuclear medicine, cybersecurity, and biotechnology.
Why is biotechnology significant? A June 2025 case that is connected to the University of Michigan is a poignant illustration of the Chinese’s outside-the-box thinking.
The FBI arrested Jian in connection with allegations related to Jian’s and Liu’s smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.
According to the complaint, Jian received Chinese government funding for her work on this pathogen in China. The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sounded the alarm about foreign students conducting technological espionage on the United States in March 2025.
Grassley made a strong argument that our casual approach to allowing Chinese nationals to study in the United States should come to an end.
The Citizenship & Immigration Services Ombudsman has warned that Chinese nationals in our university systems are engaged in widespread technological espionage – both on campus and in the workplace.
Foreign STEM students often take tech jobs that give them access to sensitive technologies.
This shouldn’t be possible.
Why? Because the law clearly states that student visas are “solely” for study, not for work.
Outrageously, the Department of Homeland Security has granted work authorizations to hundreds-of-thousands of foreign students every year, in violation of the law.
The Department of Homeland Security has even allowed foreign students to stay in this country under their student visas for years after they graduate in order to work.
If we want to protect our national security, and our competitive economic [advantage] with China, this must end.
American officials have been warning about China's exploitation of U.S. universities for years.
It should not be lost on any American that the Chinese government can demand that any of its citizens turn over information to the state.
Here is a quote from the law: “All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.” While the term “national intelligence” is not clearly defined, the law states elsewhere that “national intelligence” relates to conduct that endangers “the national security and interests of the People’s Republic of China.” The CCP could interpret that language to cover virtually everything. After all, China tends to construe its “national security and interests” broadly. Beijing, thus, has weaponized its entire private sector and massive expatriate community to gather critical sensitive, private, or military information from foreign governments and commercial entities without restriction. There are countless examples of Chinese espionage to date, many of which directly support CCP strategic objectives. Those Chinese entities or individuals who do not comply violate Chinese law.
This effectively turns all Chinese nationals into potential spies for the government.
In January 2022, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray delivered an extraordinary speech describing Chinese espionage as increasingly "more brazen" and "more damaging," including activity involving American academia.
"China's government has the global reach and presence of a great nation, but it refuses to act the part and too often uses its capabilities to steal and threaten, rather than to cooperate and build," Wray said. "That theft, those threats, are happening right here in America, literally every day."
And yet the federal government was simultaneously retreating from one of its most prominent efforts to investigate the problem.
READ MORE: Hegseth Makes Good on Ivy League Crackdown With First New Military Fellowship Partners
The Justice Department terminated its "China Initiative" in February 2022 after the program became the subject of intense criticism from academics who argued that it encouraged racial profiling.
More than 160 University of Pennsylvania faculty members had signed a public letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to shut down the program. Faculty at institutions including MIT and Harvard had also pushed for its termination.
There was an extraordinary financial backdrop to that debate as well. According to Department of Education disclosures cited by the National Legal and Policy Center, Penn received more than $67.6 million in donations and contracts from China between 2013 and 2019. About $47.7 million arrived during the three years Joe Biden was affiliated with the university.
We are getting even more reports about the Biden administration turning a blind eye to China, ranging from all manner of threats — from election integrity to COVID bioengineering to spy scandals.
The American people are tired of being sold out to the highest bidder. If the United States doesn’t start protecting itself from foreign subversion, it will not survive as a free nation.
