Investigation Reveals Energy Department Collaborated with China's Military on Research

Today, 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.

"This investigation reveals a deeply alarming problem: The Department of Energy failed to ensure the security of its research and it put American taxpayers on the hook for funding the military rise of our nation's foremost adversary. The department, which oversees critical research and technological innovation, allowed research collaborations that were exploited by China," said Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI). "The department must stop providing funding to grantees who allow this exploitation and protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

“For years, Communist China has had front-row access to critical dual-use technologies and those directly related to next-generation military aircraft, electronic warfare systems, and radar detection. Based on the findings in this report, Communist China’s infiltration of cutting-edge, taxpayer-funded research at the Department of Energy must be put to a stop. America’s adversaries should not have premier access to sensitive technologies that could compromise our national security," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR).

“For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has conducted intellectual property theft, cyber espionage, and illicit technology transfers under the guise of international research collaboration,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-AR). “The CCP has long operated below the threshold of armed conflict to defeat the U.S. without firing a shot. They are actively working to exploit lapses in research security to steal our innovation and use it not only to their benefit but also to the clear and direct detriment of the U.S. This systematic plunder allows the CCP to accelerate what took the U. S. decades and trillions of dollars to develop - leapfrogging entire generations of research and development in emerging technology fields - eroding America’s technological edge. It is time to take a more vigilant approach to ensure we are enforcing safeguards in academia and in both government and private research to prevent these industries from becoming a breeding ground for weapons programs of the Chinese Communist Party. I am honored to join Chairman Moolenaar and Chairman Cotton in the release of this investigative report that pulls back the curtain on a real and impending threat.”

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.