The House Select Committee on China and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released an investigative report revealing how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exploits the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to gain access and divert American taxpayer-funded research and fuel its military and technological rise.

The investigation identified approximately 4,350 research papers between June 2023 and June 2025, where DOE funding or research support involved research relationships with PRC entities, including over 730 DOE awards and contracts. Of these, approximately 2,200 publications were conducted in partnership with entities within China’s defense research and industrial base. Among the most concerning are partnerships involving the “Seven Sons of National Defense” universities as well as the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics and its subsidiaries. The academy is China’s primary nuclear weapons research and development complex.

In one of many alarming examples in the report, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Lab and the University of Tennessee co-authored a 2023 publication on electronic conductivity with a Chinese military company named China Electronic Technology Group Corporation (CETC). CETC is a state-owned defense conglomerate and one of the largest military-industrial enterprises in the world, comprising more than 500 subordinate research institutes, laboratories, and subsidiaries. The company was listed as a Chinese military company by the Department of Treasury in 2020 and the Pentagon in 2021.

This case study and many more like it in the report underscore a deeply troubling reality: U.S. government scientists—employed by the DOE and working at federally funded national laboratories—have coauthored research with Chinese entities at the very heart of the PRC’s military-industrial complex. They involve the joint development of technologies relevant to next-generation military aircraft, electronic warfare systems, radar deception techniques, and critical energy and aerospace infrastructure—alongside entities already restricted by multiple U.S. agencies for posing a threat to national security.

This investigation follows the September 2025 investigation by the Select Committee which uncovered that Biden-era Defense Department and longtime career officials allowed extensive research to be conducted with CCP-backed defense entities while funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. In this investigation, more than 1,400 research publications were identified involving DOD-funded projects with Chinese partners—totaling more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funding. Approximately 800 of the publications—over half— involved direct collaboration with Chinese defense entities.

Read the full report here.

DOE Publication and Award Data here.

Read the AP news exclusive here.