China Exploiting US-Funded Research To Boost Nuclear Tech, Report Reveals

Beijing has tapped into U.S.-funded scientific research to advance its military and strategic capabilities, including nuclear technology, according to a congressional report released Wednesday.

The report — produced by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in conjunction with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — found that Beijing exploited partnerships between Chinese researchers and American scientists funded by the Department of Energy (DOE). Lawmakers warn these collaborations have given China access to sensitive technologies with direct applications for nuclear weapons, advanced defense systems and other areas critical to national security.

Specifically, the researchers found that between June 2023 and June 2025, more than 4,300 academic papers involved collaborations between DOE-funded researchers and Chinese scientists. Roughly half of those papers included Chinese contributors affiliated with China’s military or defense-linked industrial base.

“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,” Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, who chairs the committee, said in a statement. “The department must stop providing funding to grantees who allow this exploitation and protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

The DOE oversees some of the most sensitive research in the U.S., including work related to nuclear energy, nuclear weapons development and disposal, and quantum computing.

The report identified at least 24 publications produced between June 2023 and June 2025 that acknowledged DOE funding and were conducted in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, China’s primary nuclear weapons research and development complex.

Congressional investigators also found that federal funds supported partnerships with Chinese state-owned laboratories and universities that directly serve China’s military, including entities designated by the Pentagon as Chinese military companies operating in the United States.

In one example, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee co-authored a 2023 paper on electronic conductivity with China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a state-owned defense conglomerate designated by the Treasury Department and the Pentagon as a Chinese military company.

The report further detailed collaborations involving Chinese entities accused of conducting cyberattacks, participating in human rights abuses, or supporting China’s surveillance state.

Investigators flagged these partnerships as particularly concerning given the CCP’s policy of “military-civil fusion,” which allows civilian research to be adapted for military use.

“These longstanding policy failures and inaction have left taxpayer-funded research vulnerable to exploitation by China’s defense research and industrial base and state-directed technology transfer activities,” the report states.

The select committee’s report adds to a growing body of research documenting how U.S. government funding has inadvertently bolstered the military capabilities of the CCP.

A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation in March found that the Department of War and the DOE funded more than 100 research projects using Chinese government supercomputers sanctioned by the U.S. for collaborating with China’s military. Other federal agencies have also awarded sensitive scientific, military and energy grants to researchers participating in Chinese government programs linked to economic espionage.