The University of Michigan is discontinuing its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a relationship that caused extra controversy in recent years.
On Friday, Michigan’s Gregory Teachout of the Office of the Provost issued a statement explaining the school’s decision.
”The move follows a recent report from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party concerned with national security, and a letter from committee chair U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, communicating his concerns that the partnership had been compromised,” the statement says.
In October, Moolenaar wrote to Michigan President Santa Ono requesting that the university “shutter the partnership between U-M and Shanghai Jiao Tong” while also pursuing “necessary steps to safeguard the integrity of federally funded research at U-M and carefully vet international students studying on U-M’s campus.”
Moolenaar’s letter came weeks after an FBI complaint accused five recent Michigan graduates and Chinese nationals of spying on a military base in northern Michigan. Two Chinese nationals who were Michigan graduate students were arrested in 2020 for unlawfully taking photographs of a Florida naval base.
”The decision reflects broader changes in the landscape of international academic cooperation, particularly between U.S. and Chinese institutions,” Michigan’s latest statement continues. “U-M reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining rigorous standards for international collaborations while ensuring compliance with national security considerations.”
In response to the university’s decision, Moolenaar said that Michigan has chosen the “right decision” and that “more of our nation’s universities should follow U-M’s action.”
”My committee has put a spotlight on the fact that too many American universities are collaborating with CCP researchers on critical technologies including weapons, artificial intelligence, and nuclear physics,” the congressman stated in a press release. “The results of these collaborations could one day be turned against our country, and we cannot allow that to happen.”
”In U-M’s case, its Chinese joint institute partner was helping the CCP modernize its military, and then five students who came to Michigan from China through the joint institute ended up spying on Camp Grayling,” Moolenaar added. “American universities should end these types of joint institutes and protect the security of our nation’s research.”
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
