Pentagon threatens to cut federal funding to 30 universities over foreign academic partnerships

Thirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions.

Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews – and end partnerships deemed problematic – by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian.

“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said in a news release from Monday.

The Pentagon said the reviews are intended to protect taxpayer-funded research from unauthorized technology transfers, intellectual-property theft and exploitation by foreign adversaries.

According to the US official, the 30 institutions also include the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, San Diego; Penn State University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; Duke University; and New York University.

The department’s public release did not name the universities.

The order follows the Pentagon’s release last month of an updated list of 130 foreign universities and research institutions that it says engage in activities increasing the risk that US-funded research and development could be misappropriated. Most are Chinese institutions, including the University of Science and Technology of China and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences; several Russian and Iranian institutions are also listed.

The Pentagon has claimed the foreign institutions on its list have been linked to activity that could allow US research and technology to be diverted to foreign governments. The list, required under a provision of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, was first developed during Donald Trump’s first term with help from the American Council on Education.

The administration’s campaign has increasingly placed US universities themselves under scrutiny.

Last November, more than three dozen universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke, faced potential suspension from the state department’s Diplomacy Lab program, which pairs university researchers with state department policy offices on foreign policy projects, over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices. An internal memo and spreadsheet obtained by the Guardian at the time showed the department moving to remove 38 institutions from the program while adding 10 schools.

Harvard has been a particular target of the administration. A US federal ⁠judge ⁠recently dismissed its lawsuit that ⁠claimed ​the university failed ‌to protect Jewish ‌and Israeli students from harassment in the aftermath of the war on Gaza.

The justice department is also investigating whether Harvard allowed Chinese donors to establish scholarships that excluded American students, part of a wider series of federal investigations and disputes involving the Ivy League institution.

The Trump administration has repeatedly portrayed Beijing’s access to American technology, research and infrastructure as a national security concern. It has also sought to counter Chinese influence across the western hemisphere, including Chinese involvement in ports near the Panama Canal, infrastructure financed through Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative and investment in telecommunications networks.

China has rejected Washington’s characterization of academic cooperation as a security threat.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson told the Associated Press that Beijing opposed the politicization of “normal scientific, educational, and academic exchanges” and urged Washington to “abandon the cold war mentality and foster an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment” for academic and scientific exchanges between the two countries.