FIRST ON FOX: Harvard allegedly failed to adequately safeguard research collaborations with Chinese institutions, including universities tied to Beijings military and defense-industrial base, according to a report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Researchers affiliated with the New England Ivy League co-authored more than 140 publications with other researchers affiliated with a group of Chinese universities, according to the report reviewed by Fox News Digital ahead of its public release.
The “Seven Sons of National Defense” are a group of Chinese universities identified by the Pentagon and other U.S. officials as central to Chinas defense research and military modernization efforts. The House Committee created to crackdown on China argues Harvards approach to research security opened the door for collaborations that could advance technological and military capabilities of the hostile nation.
Harvard also reported received more than $600 million from China under the federal Section 117 foreign-gift disclosure system â more than any other American university, according to the Education Department dashboard cited in the report. The committee argues the U.S. university’s financial ties to China heighten the need for strict oversight of its research partnerships and foreign-funding disclosures.
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The stakes in the latest report extend far beyond Harvard. U.S. officials have warned for years that China uses academic partnerships and access to Western research to advance CCP strategic capabilities in military, surveillance and other areas.
The House Select Committee on China argues that universities receiving U.S. taxpayer funding must do more than meet the narrowest legal requirements when collaborating with institutions embedded in Chinas military research system, particularly when it comes to technology with potential defense or military uses.
The report highlights a 2023 paper on bio-inspired soft robots for deep-sea exploration co-authored by a Harvard-affiliated researcher and a researcher from Beihang University, one of the Seven Sons institutions. Beihang, also known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has appeared on the Commerce Departments Entity List since 2001.
The committee report argues the work examined in the paper has potential military applications, including underwater detection, while Harvards research-compliance office characterized the project as nonmilitary research.
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Harvard researchers also co-authored a 2023 paper with a researcher at Chinas National University of Defense Technology, another institution on a U.S. restricted list, according to the report. That study involved magnetic materials and acknowledged partial support from the U.S. Army Research Office.
The committee said it reviewed publications spanning dozens of disciplines and found that engineering accounted for the largest share of Harvard-affili
