You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The University of Michigan announced Friday that it would end its two-decade academic partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in China.
The move follows a report released in September by the chairs of the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Education and the Workforce Committee that raised concerns that China is exploiting federally funded research for its own gain. The report called for more stringent requirements for U.S. universities partnered with foreign institutions.
In November, U.S. representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter directly to UM president Santa Ono urging the institution to break ties with SJTU.
In a statement Friday, Ono confirmed the decision following discussions with U.S. congressional leadership and internal university stakeholders. He said the institution will continue to pursue partnerships around the world “as part of our academic mission.”
“As we do so, we must also prioritize our commitment to national security,” he said.
In a statement, Moolenaar said UM was making the right decision and urged more institutions to do the same. “My committee has put a spotlight on the fact that too many American universities are collaborating with CCP researchers on critical technologies including weapons, artificial intelligence, and nuclear physics. The results of these collaborations could one day be turned against our country, and we cannot allow that to happen,” he said.
Moolenaar’s November letter cited a 2023 incident in which five Chinese nationals—then UM students—allegedly photographed a training exercise conducted by the Michigan Army National Guard. All five, who have since graduated, were charged in October with conspiracy, making false statements and destroying records in a federal countersurveillance investigation, according to an FBI complaint.
Michigan’s action follows similar moves last year by Georgia Tech, which shut its 10-year-old overseas campus, the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, and University of California, Berkeley, which dissolved its partnership with Tsinghua University.