AI Generated Image
Pentagon orders audit of universities' foreign partnerships
AP News • • nation
Key Points:
- The U.S. Department of Defense has ordered 30 universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins, to audit their partnerships with mostly Chinese universities and military institutions, with failure to comply risking loss of funding within two weeks.
- The Pentagon aims to protect taxpayer-funded research from theft and exploitation, emphasizing zero tolerance for academic partnerships that could compromise national security.
- The order follows an updated Pentagon list of 130 foreign institutions, mostly Chinese but also including Iranian and Russian, accused of activities increasing the risk of misappropriating U.S. government-funded research.
- The American Council on Education expressed concern that the directive implies wrongdoing by universities without evidence and worries about liability for past partnerships predating the list’s creation.
- The Chinese embassy condemned the U.S. actions as politicization of academic exchanges and called for an open and non-discriminatory environment for scientific and educational cooperation.
