University of Michigan ends Chinese partnership after intense pressure from US lawmakers
Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been accused of playing a ‘critical role’ in the Communist Party’s military-civil fusion strategy
The University of Michigan is ending its long-standing partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, becoming the latest major US research institution to sever ties with a Chinese counterpart under pressure from lawmakers.
The announcement was made on Friday, three months after the House select committee on China sent a letter to the University of Michigan’s president, Santa Ono, arguing that the Chinese university played a “critical role in the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civil fusion strategy”.
In a statement, Ono said the University of Michigan must “prioritise our commitment to national security” even as “international academic partnerships have deeply enriched our academic offerings and strengthened the global education of our students”.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, known for its strength in science and engineering, is not on any US government blacklists, although the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, listed it as “high-risk” in its defence-related tracker of Chinese universities.
The partnership between the two top-ranking public universities involved a joint institute that placed American students in China and Chinese students in the United States. Established in 2005, the institute offered English-language engineering degree programmes.
The provost’s office at the University of Michigan said the institute had offered global learning experiences to over 1,000 undergraduates, and would work to ensure current students can complete their degrees without disruptions.
