The Georgia Institute of Technology is ending its research and educational partnerships in the Chinese cities of Tianjin and Shenzhen, the US university said on Friday, following scrutiny from the US Congress over its collaboration with entities allegedly linked to China’s military.
In May, the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party wrote a letter to Georgia Tech asking for details on its research with China’s northeastern Tianjin University on cutting-edge semiconductor technologies.
The Chinese school and its affiliates were in 2020 added to the US Department of Commerce’s export restrictions list for actions contrary to US national security, including trade secret theft and research collaboration to advance China’s military.
Photo: Reuters
University spokeswoman Abbigail Tumpey said in an e-mail that Georgia Tech has been assessing its posture in China since Tianjin University was added to the entity list.
“Tianjin University has had ample time to correct the situation. To date, Tianjin University remains on the Entity List, making Georgia Tech’s participation with Tianjin University, and subsequently Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, no longer tenable,” Tumpey said.
Georgia Tech, a top tier US engineering school and major recipient of US Department of Defense funding, said in an accompanying statement that it would discontinue its participation in the Shenzhen institute, but that the approximately 300 students in programs there would have the opportunity to fulfill their degree requirements.
In January, Georgia Tech touted that its researchers based in Atlanta and at the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems had created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from the nanomaterial graphene.
It said the breakthrough could lead to a “paradigm shift” in electronics and yield faster computing.
The US and China, intense geopolitical and scientific rivals, view semiconductors as a strategic industry with civilian and military uses, including quantum computing and advanced weapons systems.
In its May letter, the select committee said the Tianjin research center is affiliated with a Chinese company with subsidiaries that supply the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
A Georgia Tech scientist who led the Tianjin project has defended the research, saying that all the results were available to the public and that the collaboration had passed extensive legal reviews.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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