This article, authored byPhilip Lenczyckiis republished under the Creative Commons “CC BY-NC-ND” license with permission fromThe Daily Caller News Foundation.

The U.S. Intelligence Community has awarded more than a dozen sensitive defense grants to researchers affiliated with institutions connected to the Chinese government and its military, according to a report exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Since 2017, at least 14 U.S. defense research projects supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) — which istaskedby the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) with investing in “high-risk, high-payoff research programs” — have included investigators simultaneously affiliated with Chinese national laboratories, state surveillance entities, military units and nuclear weapons development institutions,accordingto the report published byParallax Advanced Research, a nonprofit funded by U.S. federal, state and municipal governments.

Participants in at least two of the IARPA projects cited in the report conducted similar research during the same period with Chinese government-tied institutions, raising serious concerns about U.S. defense technology transfer to a hostile foreign power.

“These studies reveal a deliberate effort by China’s intelligence and public security apparatus, alongside military-affiliated entities, to extract lessons, methodologies, and technical knowledge from IARPA-funded programs,” the report warns. “This includes attempts to reverse-engineer research outputs, replicate experimental designs, and adapt [U.S. Intelligence Community] technologies for use in China’s mass surveillance apparatus and strategic military capabilities.”

Researchers with ties to adversarial nations, like China, should be prohibited from collaborating on U.S. intelligence and defense research, the report’s co-author, L.J. Eads, director of research intelligence at Parallax, told the DCNF.

“What I found most concerning was the sheer number of IARPA funded projects that IARPA itself describes as having clear Intelligence Community value that have involved — and in some cases continue to involve — Chinese institutions and companies, including personnel directly tied to the [People’s Liberation Army],” said Eads.

ODNI and IARPA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Grave National Security Threats’

In one 2024 case study highlighted in the report, the lead investigator for IARPA’s BRIAR Program was allegedly found to have “a long history” of simultaneous collaboration with Chinese institutions connected to China’s military as well as U.S. government-sanctioned researchers.

Source: modernity