University of Michigan To End Joint Institute with Chinese University

Today, the University of Michigan announced it is ending its joint institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The announcement follows a letter from Congressman John Moolenaar to U-M President Santa Ono that detailed the ties between SJTU and the Chinese Communist Party's military modernization efforts.

"The University of Michigan is making the right decision in ending its joint institute with a Chinese university, and more of our nation's universities should follow U-M's action. 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. In U-M's case, its Chinese joint institute partner was helping the CCP modernize its military, and then five students who came to Michigan from China through the joint institute ended up spying on Camp Grayling. American universities should end these types of joint institutes and protect the security of our nation's research," said Moolenaar.

Last October, Moolenaar sent a letter to Ono after five Chinese nationals were charged in federal court in Detroit with lying to federal investigators after trespassing onto Camp Grayling, a military installation in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. Those five individuals came from China to Michigan as students through the joint institute partnership between U-M and SJTU. This also followed a previous incident in 2020, when two Chinese nationals attending U-M were arrested for spying on a military installation in Key West.

Moolenaar's letter to Ono documents how SJTU is a key university for the CCP as "military-academic integration enables Shanghai Jiao Tong to make significant contributions to the PRC's most sensitive defense programs, including nuclear weapons, carrier rockets, satellites, nuclear submarines, and fighter jets." The letter also detailed how "the Joint Institute also serves as a key hub for PRC talent development. Numerous PRC talent recruitment programs operate at the Institute, including the National High-Level Overseas Talent Program, Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program, and various strategic scholarship arrangements that often require recipients to declare allegiance to the CCP and act in the regime's interests."

U-M is the third American university to end a joint institute partnership with a Chinese university in the past five months after the Committee raised concerns about national security risks. Last fall, Georgia Tech announced it is ending the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Joint Institute and UC Berkeley began the process of shuttering its partnership with Tsinghua University.

In a report released in September of last year, titled "CCP on the Quad," the Select Committee on the CCP listed 21 American universities that have STEM focused joint institutes with Chinese universities and identified concerns about Defense Department funded research furthering the PRC's national security efforts on research including high-performance explosives, drone operation networks, nuclear and high-energy physics, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and hypersonics.