US failing to prevent China stealing research, congressional report says
- FBI should be more effective in warning universities about Chinese economic and industrial espionage, it says
- Agencies providing research grants and visas do too little to track recipients, while universities must be better at spotting conflicts of interest, it says
The United States government has failed to stop China stealing intellectual property from American universities and lacks a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the threat, a congressional report concluded on Monday.
It also said agencies that award research grants or provide visas for scientists did not do enough to monitor or track the recipients, and said universities themselves must do a better job identifying foreign funding sources and conflicts of interest among the scientists on their campuses.
The problem is especially urgent, according to the report from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, because billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded research have “contributed to China’s global rise over the last 20 years” and to its goal of being a world leader in science and technology by 2050.
“As American policymakers navigate an increasingly complicated relationship with China, it is not in our national security interest to fund China’s economic and military development with taxpayer dollars,” the report said.