Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee sent letters to three U.S. national lab directors asking why their research facilities funded projects using Chinese government supercomputers sanctioned by the U.S.
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation published March 20 found that the Department of Defense and Department of Energy funded 102 research projects — mainly through three U.S. national labs — that used at least one of five sanctioned Chinese supercomputer centers. On Wednesday, Lee sent inquiry letters to the directors of Oak Ridge (ORNL), Los Alamos (LANL) and Argonne National Laboratories (ANL), citing the DCNF’s findings.
“I write to express serious concerns regarding a recent report detailing how researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have engaged in research collaborations leveraging PRC-based supercomputing resources. These activities are particularly concerning in light of the 2015 U.S. sanctions on China’s National Supercomputing Centers (NSCCs) and their inclusion on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List due to their affiliations with Chinese military and strategic weapons programs,” Lee wrote in his letter to LANL Director Dr. Thom Mason.
“The report’s analysis of DOE-funded research from 2016 to 2024 highlights multiple instances in which LANL researchers have conducted studies utilizing PRC supercomputing resources, including those at the NSCCs in Guangzhou and Tianjin,” Lee added.
In June 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned Chinese supercomputing centers in Beijing, Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Tianjin, citing their involvement in activities that threatened U.S. national security, including China’s weapons of mass destruction programs.
Highlighting specific concerns in each letter, Lee wrote to ANL Director Dr. Paul Kearns, pointing to a 2022 research project titled “Kohn Anomaly and Elastic Softening in Body-Centered Cubic Molybdenum at High Pressure.”
The study involved collaboration with the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research and Sichuan University’s Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics —both on the U.S. Entity List. According to the letter, the study used “high-pressure simulations” conducted on a sanctioned Chinese supercomputer in Guangzhou.
“By working with these Entity Listed organizations and using a sanctioned HPC resource, the project raises concerns about whether crucial materials research for aerospace and defense could inadvertently support restricted PRC entities,” the letter states.
Prior to Lee’s probe, spokesmen for ANL, LANL, and ORNL told the DCNF they had not used the sanctioned CCP supercomputers.
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