House China Committee Urges Pentagon to Expand Research Security List: China Scholarship Council and Its Funded Scholars Named
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Select Committee on China announced on October 14 that its chairman, Rep. John Moolenaar, has written to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth urging the Department of War to expand its Section 1286 List to include the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and scholars funded by it, and to bar anyone receiving CSC support from participating in research funded by the Department. The 16-page letter is dated October 1 and was released with an annex and supplemental documentation setting out the basis for each nomination.
In all, the committee proposed adding more than 150 institutions and programs: besides the CSC and its affiliated scholars, the list would grow by 14 institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 62 Chinese laboratories and national defense laboratories, 58 universities and 22 foreign talent recruitment programs. The committee said the nominated entities have documented affiliations, formal agreements, oversight relationships or other significant ties to China's defense research and industrial base. The Academy institutes were described as core Chinese defense partners; the laboratories conduct research relevant to weapons, aerospace, hypersonics, semiconductors, underwater systems, electronic warfare and other military technologies; the 58 universities are formally co-administered or jointly supported by China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense; and the talent programs are concentrated in critical and emerging technology sectors such as quantum and super intelligence.
The Section 1286 List, named for a provision of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and maintained by the Department of War, identifies foreign institutions and talent recruitment programs that present national security risks to the U.S. research enterprise. In the letter, Moolenaar called the list an increasingly important research security tool, because an entity's inclusion can directly affect whether Department-funded researchers may have a research relationship with that entity, and said the list's completeness and accuracy become more important as the Department strengthens its work. The letter also noted that the Department has already notified 30 U.S. institutions of identified risks and directed them to take corrective action.
On the CSC — the Chinese Ministry of Education agency that administers government funding for Chinese citizens studying abroad, including graduate students and visiting scholars at U.S. universities — the letter said that, unlike other international student programs, the council has faced increasing scrutiny and criticism over concerns about academic freedom, surveillance of students, ideological control and potential espionage. Moolenaar asked the Department to prohibit any researcher, graduate student, postdoctoral researcher or other research personnel receiving CSC funding or financial support from participating in Department-funded research for the duration of that support: "Individuals receiving CSC support should not be permitted to work on, contribute to, or otherwise participate in DOW-funded research for the duration of that support." The prohibition, he wrote, should apply regardless of whether the individual is formally listed as a covered individual, principal investigator, co-investigator or other named participant on the award. Because the proposed ban would apply to individual recipients, it bears directly on Chinese students and scholars in the United States.
The letter is a request from a congressional committee and does not itself change the list; whether to expand it, and which entities to add, is for the Department of War to decide under its established criteria. The committee's announcement did not mention a response from the Department.
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Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 众议院中国委员会主席 John Moolenaar（左）与战争部长 Pete Hegseth，2025 年 5 月摄于新加坡（资料图） · 美国国防部供图，Wikimedia Commons，公共领域
