The University of Michigan has been placed under federal investigation by the Education Department following the separate arrests of two Chinese scientists linked to the institution on charges of smuggling biological materials into the United States.
The department announced its probe into the university’s foreign funding on Tuesday, citing the "highly disturbing criminal charges" that emerged within days of each other in June. It expressed significant concerns regarding Michigan’s susceptibility to national security threats originating from China.
Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel for the department, stated: "Despite the University of Michigan’s history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence, recent reports reveal that UM’s research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage."
The scrutiny aligns with a broader push under President Donald Trump to enhance transparency surrounding foreign gifts and contracts to US universities, particularly those with ties to China. Similar investigations have been initiated at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley. This also echoes calls from Republicans in Congress for universities to sever research ties with China, alleging exploitation for technology theft. Michigan itself ended a partnership with a Shanghai university in January amid pressure from House Republicans who deemed it a security risk.
The new investigation demands comprehensive financial records from Michigan, alongside details of its research collaborations with institutions outside the US. The Education Department has accused the university of providing "incomplete, inaccurate and untimely" public disclosures concerning funding from foreign sources.
In response, Colleen Mastony, a spokesperson for the University of Michigan, affirmed the institution’s commitment to cooperate with federal investigators, stating it takes its responsibility to comply with the law "extremely seriously." Ms Mastony added: "We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission."
The federal charges in June involved a Chinese scientist and his girlfriend, who worked at a University of Michigan lab, after the FBI reportedly thwarted their attempt to bring a toxic fungus into the US. Days later, another Chinese scientist was arrested upon arrival in the US, accused of shipping biological material to a University of Michigan laboratory. The university announced a review of its research security protocols in June.
However, in a letter to the university, the Education Department criticised certain school officials for downplaying the risks of research collaborations with Chinese institutions. It specifically singled out Ann Chih Lin, director of the university's Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly dismissed the threat of technology theft from China as overstated. Department officials wrote that Ms Lin’s "apparent indifference to the national security concerns of the largest single source of funding for UM’s annual research expenditures — the American taxpayer — is particularly unsettling."
Federal law mandates universities to report all foreign gifts and contracts totalling \$250,000 or more. This law saw limited enforcement until Donald Trump’s first term, when the Education Department launched numerous inquiries into universities suspected of underreporting foreign funds. While the Biden administration closed most of these cases, the enforcement effort has recently been renewed.
Many US universities acknowledge the need to bolster research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with undue hostility, noting that only a small number have been implicated in espionage. Last year, a report by House Republicans claimed that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had inadvertently supported Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology, and nuclear weapons.
China remains the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the US, after India, with over 270,000 Chinese students making up roughly a quarter of all international students in the 2023-24 academic year.
