Moolenaar Calls for Pentagon to Update Its List of PLA-Linked Institutions and Talent Recruitment Programs
Chairman John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China sent a letter to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calling on the Department of War to expand its Section 1286 List by adding 14 Chinese Academy of Sciences Institutes identified as core CCP defense partners, 62 Chinese laboratories/national defense laboratories, 58 universities, 22 foreign malign talent programs, and the China Scholarship Council and affiliated scholars.
In the letter, Moolenaar writes:
"The Department has also taken steps to address research security concerns at U.S. universities, including notifying 30 institutions of identified risks and directing corrective action...Central to these efforts is the Department’s Section 1286 List, which identifies foreign institutions and talent recruitment programs that present national security risks to the U.S. research enterprise. The list has become an increasingly important research security tool because an entity’s inclusion can directly affect whether DOW-funded researchers may have a research relationship with that entity. As the Department works to strengthen its impact, the completeness and accuracy of the Section 1286 List becomes more important.
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The Select Committee has identified PRC research institutions with documented affiliations, formal agreements, oversight relationships, or other significant ties to China’s defense research and industrial base. Based on the evidence detailed in the annex accompanying this letter and supplemental documentation, the Committee recommends that the Department add these institutions under its established criteria for inclusion on the Section 1286 List. These include Chinese Academy of Sciences institutes identified as core defense partners; national defense-designated laboratories conducting research relevant to weapons, aerospace, hypersonics, semiconductors, underwater systems, electronic warfare, and other military technologies; and universities formally co-administered or jointly supported by the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND). The nominations also include talent recruitment programs concentrated in critical and emerging technology sectors such as quantum and artificial intelligence (AI). As detailed in the accompanying annex, the basis for review includes documented military research and procurement, defense-industrial relationships, institutional connections to the PRC’s national defense science and technology system, and other evidence relevant to the Department’s designation criteria.
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Finally, the Department should prohibit any researcher, graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, or other research personnel receiving funding or financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) from participating in DOW-funded research. Unlike other international student programs, the CSC has faced increasing scrutiny and criticism due to concerns over academic freedom, surveillance of students, ideological control, and potential espionage.
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Individuals receiving CSC support should not be permitted to work on, contribute to, or otherwise participate in DOW-funded research for the duration of that support. This prohibition should apply regardless of whether the individual is formally listed as a covered individual, principal investigator, co-investigator, or other named participant on the DOW award."
Read the full letter here, and view supplemental documentation about entities that the list expansion should capture, from talent programs here to national defense labs here.