US should consider barring Chinese citizens from its national labs, Senate hears

The US must do more to keep Chinese citizens from accessing its scientific research, including barring them from the country’s national laboratories, lawmakers and experts warned on Thursday, in the latest sign of intensifying government scrutiny of America’s research and development systems. “There’s been literally a whole generation of successful efforts by Communist China on stealing stuff,” said Paul Dabbar, CEO of California-based Bohr Quantum Technology and Donald Trump’s former Department of Energy undersecretary for science. Testifying at a hearing convened by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Dabbar recommended a default “ban [on] Chinese nationals at the national labs” with the Department of Energy able to grant waivers. The department oversees 17 national labs that have played a critical role in advancing technological research in everything from nuclear weapons to clean energy and artificial intelligence. Dabbar’s comments came as Washington debates how best to attract top talent for innovation while safeguarding American intellectual property rights and national security. Thursday’s hearing drew a chorus of support for tighter restrictions, even as some acknowledged the contributions of researchers from mainland China. Asked by Angus King, an independent US senator from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, whether a total ban on researchers from China at the labs would cost America “good scientific breakthroughs”, Dabbar reiterated his recommendation. Meanwhile, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who also chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he would champion legislation to prohibit citizens of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia from gaining access to national labs unless they obtain a waiver justifying that the benefits of their entry outweigh the costs. That legislation passed committee review during the last Congress but failed to become law. Despite the allowance of a waiver, the Department of Energy under President Joe Biden had expressed concern with the proposal, arguing it would have “a significant impact on our national laboratories”. According to a 2024 report by the National Science Foundation, foreign-born workers comprise 19 per cent of the US’ overall STEM workforce. Cotton, citing a statistic from the 2023 fiscal year, on Thursday said 8,000 citizens of China and Russia were granted access to America’s national labs that year. The Biden White House had previously stressed that all visitors to national labs and nuclear weapons production facilities were already subject to screening to protect against threats. Yet the risk of potential espionage or intellectual property theft at the labs from “countries of risk” has in recent years remained a concern for lawmakers, especially Republicans. In addition to China, lawmakers feel particularly uneasy about foreign nationals from Iran and Russia. Lawmakers frequently cite China’s Thousand Talents programme to justify restrictions on Chinese researchers. That scheme, started by Beijing in 2008 to target scientists aged 55 and under, has become one of the most prominent initiatives to bring leading global scientists, largely of Chinese descent, to China. Through efforts like Thousand Talents “the CCP systematically recruited elite scientists, nationals of the People’s Republic of China who were trained in the West, built their careers in American labs and worked with American funding to develop American technology”, said Mike Lee of Utah, who chairs the Senate energy committee. “It’s a deliberate strategy to leverage US taxpayer-funded expertise for the benefit of the Chinese military,” he added, noting that China’s laws require its citizens to participate in intelligence sharing. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, as with other Democrats, used Thursday’s hearing to point out that workforce cuts by the Trump administration, including to the Department of Energy, posed a national security threat as well. “Not all threats come from foreign entities,” said Heinrich, the committee’s ranking member. “President Trump is doing exactly what our adversaries want. They aren’t losing their best experts.” Other witnesses on Thursday, such as Anna Puglisi of the Hoover Institution and Geraldine Richmond of the University of Oregon, also offered policy recommendations to improve the US’ research security. These included establishing a national centre for “open-source information” to help universities make more informed decisions about potential research threats and creating an international framework of research expectations for visiting students and scientists. Protecting research was likewise a key theme highlighted by Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Thursday. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Tim Walberg, chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, wrote to three Michigan-based universities urging them to end partnerships with Chinese universities. The letters – sent to Eastern Michigan University, Oakland University and the University of Detroit Mercy – reflected the Michigan lawmakers’ concerns about the Chinese effort to “gain a technological advantage over the United States”, according to a press release on Thursday. Several major American public institutions have already severed ties as a result of congressional scrutiny, including the University of Michigan just last month.

US should consider barring Chinese citizens from its national labs, Senate hears

Hearing showcases support for restricting access to American scientific research as Beijing’s ‘stealing’ cited