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.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
A grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child. Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus. The former care worker, from the West Midlands, England, had previously attempted to take her own life. The case comes as assisted dying would not become law in England and Wales after proposed legislation, branded “hopelessly flawed” by opponents, ran out of time. Ruedi Habegger, the founder of Pegasos, described Duffy’s death as
From post offices and parks to stations and even the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan’s vending machines are ubiquitous, but with the rapid pace of inflation cooling demand for their drinks, operators are being forced to rethink the business. Last month beverage giant DyDo Group Holdings announced it would remove about 20,000 vending machines — about 7 percent of their stock nationwide — by January next year, to “reconstruct a profitable network.” Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, based in Nagoya, also said last month it would sell its 40,000-machine operation to Osaka-based Lifedrink Co. “The strength of the vending machine
RSS