EXCLUSIVE: Big Ten School Joined Forces With Chinese University On Car-Tracking Tech, Report Finds
A major American public university teamed up with a Chinese military-linked school on traffic technology that Beijing uses as a surveillance tool, a report found.
A major American public university teamed up with a Chinese military-linked school on traffic technology that Beijing uses as a surveillance tool, a report found.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and China’s Southeast University (SEU) set up a joint research institute in 2017 whose work fed into China’s connected-car rulebook, which the country’s police agency helped write, according to a Strategy Risks report shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Washington is already moving to wall off Chinese connected-car technology, with a Senate committee advancing a bill in July to clamp down on Chinese automakers.
UW-Madison and SEU signed an agreement creating the Joint Research Institute (JRI) in Oct. 2017, and senior engineering staff from the Wisconsin university attended its unveiling ceremony in Nanjing, China in Dec. 2017, the report stated.
Five UW-Madison researchers were among 46 contributors to a 2019 Chinese report on connected-car technology, which listed the JRI first among its authors, the report found. A research institute run by China’s police agency, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), was listed seventh. The Chinese university helped write China’s 2023 connected-car rules with an MPS traffic safety center.
SEU is overseen by both China’s education ministry and its defense industry agency, runs two designated defense labs and holds secret-level credentials for security, the report found.
SEU and a PLA unit opened