US agencies pressed to bar research ties with Chinese institutions
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives from both parties voiced concern this month about China exploiting American research, while diverging on how to protect it, at a hearing on Capitol Hill on 15 July (https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/protecting-american-innovation-the-federal-research-security-enterprise). The session followed a US National Science Foundation (NSF) announcement roughly a week earlier that it would bar collaborations between the scientists it funds and international institutions Washington deems a national-security threat — including many of China's leading universities (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/information/dcl-prohibition-collaborations-entities-us-prohibited-party).
By Source Reporters Newsdesk
Sun, 19 July 2026 · 2 min read
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives from both parties voiced concern this month about China exploiting American research, while diverging on how to protect it, at a hearing on Capitol Hill on 15 July (https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/protecting-american-innovation-the-federal-research-security-enterprise). The session followed a US National Science Foundation (NSF) announcement roughly a week earlier that it would bar collaborations between the scientists it funds and international institutions Washington deems a national-security threat — including many of China's leading universities (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/information/dcl-prohibition-collaborations-entities-us-prohibited-party).
The NSF funds about 25% of basic US academic research and has historically placed few limits on international work. Its new policy, set to take effect on 1 October, would prohibit senior personnel listed on research grants from collaborating with or receiving funding from "restricted entities" — institutions, companies and individuals in China and other countries designated a threat by agencies such as the Department of Defense. Among the listed bodies are the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong, Nature reported.
Republicans and Democrats agreed that joint work with China can be a vector for research theft but split on remedies. Representative John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, praised the NSF move and urged other science agencies to adopt the same prohibition. Democrats warned that staffing and spending cuts to US science agencies under President Donald Trump's administration are undermining oversight — Rebecca Keiser, head of the NSF's Office of Research Security Policy and Strategy, testified her department has just five staff, down from ten in 2024. "We cannot protect American research while the administration is dismantling the very people and programmes that protect it," said Representative Ro Khanna, the committee's senior Democrat.
The push arrives against a longer backdrop of tightening US research-security policy. The Trump administration's earlier China Initiative (2017–2021) targeted espionage in US labs; the Biden administration discontinued it in 2022 but kept a focus on research security. A May proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget suggests a sweeping ban on collaborations between federal-grant recipients and unspecified "foreign adversaries." House Republicans have also pressed the Energy Department to bar non-citizen researchers of Chinese heritage from US national laboratories — a step Representative Jill Tokuda, a Hawaii Democrat, said would hurt the country's ability to attract top talent.
Researchers and university groups have cautioned that broad restrictions could fracture global scientific collaboration and cede ground to competitors, even as supporters argue they are needed to shield sensitive work. With the NSF rule due to bite in October and other agencies weighing similar steps, the trajectory points to a more walled-off era for US–China science, Nature noted.
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