Defense Department Orders 30 501(c)(3) Universities to Audit Ties to China

The Trump Administration ordered 30 universities, which are 501(c)(3) organizations, to audit their foreign research partnerships or risk losing funding.

The order, issued Aug. 17 by the Defense Department, instructs universities to review their ties to 130 foreign institutions, mainly Chinese, that "engage in activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated." Schools that fail to terminate any DoD-labeled "problematic" partnerships within two weeks may lose their eligibility for future federal research funding.

The order is intended to protect taxpayer-funded research from "unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft and adversarial exploitation," the Pentagon alleged in the announcement.

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