Gallagher Committee Targets Cal - China Collaboration

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) of the Education and the Workforce Committee, recently sent a letter to the President and Chancellor of the University of California Berkeley. expressing concerns about Berkeley's joint institute with Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen government in China..

The lawmakers pointed out that the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) provides the People's Republic of China (PRC) with easy access to Berkeley's research and expertise. They emphasized that this access potentially allows the PRC to gain economic, technological, and military advantages.

TBSI was established in 2014 to support a dual-degree program, "designed to fuel economic growth through transdisciplinary and translational research," according to the University.  The program allows students to spend 2.5 years pursuing a master’s degree in engineering at Berkeley and a master’s of science degree at Tsinghua.  

Tsinghua University was founded in 1911 with funds from the United States' Boxer Rebellon Indemnity,  as a preparatory school for students the Chinese government planned to send to the United States.   The University hosts, among other programs, the prestigious Schwartzman Scholars.

Letter Details Concerns

According to the lawmakers, one of their key concerns is the  resemblance between TBSI's research priorities and the PRC's science and technology goals outlined in its 13th Five-Year Plan. The alignment of these priorities raises questions about whether U.S. taxpayer dollars are inadvertently contributing to the PRC's military and technological advancements.

The letter draws extensively from reporting in May by "The Daily Beast" which detailed the commercial and financial ties between Cal and Chinese entities associated with TBSI. In that piece, Robert Shaw of the Middlebury Institute questioned language about priority commercialization rights, calling it a “red flag in an export-control compliance sense.”

“That sort of language sounds like the purpose of the research is IP generation versus the sharing of knowledge globally in an academic context,” he said.

"Berkeley’s PRC-backed collaboration with Tsinghua University raises many red flags," reads the Congressional letter to Cal Administrators.

• "First, TBSI is engaging in research in dual-use technologies that will likely be used to advance the PRC’s military or intelligence capabilities.
• "Second, TBSI is collaborating with PRC universities and companies that the U.S. Government has banned from receiving sensitive U.S. technology, which raises concerns about whether TBSI may be helping such blacklisted actors to access such technologies.
• "Third, despite billing itself as an academic partnership, in practice one of TBSI’s main functions is to facilitate PRC funding of Berkeley research—all while reportedly failing to disclose funding from the city of Shenzhen and from Tsinghua.

The lawmakers expressed apprehension regarding the nature of the collaboration, stating that although TBSI is presented as a joint technology venture among educational institutions, it appears to function as a program through which the PRC pays for access to Berkeley's research and expertise. 

The letter dated July 13 asks for an information trove on a timeline sure to ruin somebody's vacation schedule.   "We respectfully request that you produce documents and information sufficient to respond to the following questions no later than July 27, 2023:

• Please produce all documents regarding contractual or investment relationships between Berkeley and TBSI, the scope of technical collaboration, procedures for licensing intellectual property in or out, non-disclosure agreements imposed by TBSI, and the management structure of TBSI. Please also provide copies of any memorandum of understanding related to TBSI, feasibility studies for TBSI, approvals for formation of TBSI, and similar documentation, as well as any annual reports, balance sheets, business licenses, social credit reports, court or administrative judgments or decisions, capital examinations, or similar documents related to the operations and activities of TBSI. 
• Please provide copies of all meeting minutes for meetings among the regents of the University of California that mention TBSI.
• The Chancellor of Berkeley is listed as the co-chair of the joint management committee of TBSI.21 Please describe her role at TBSI and any steps she has taken to ensure compliance with U.S. export controls, including any policies, procedures, memoranda, guidance documents, or internal controls implemented or communicated to relevant personnel, researchers, and students. 
• Please produce documents sufficient to show all compliance and due diligence mechanisms currently in place for research taking place at TBSI in the U.S. and in the PRC. 
• If compliance and due diligence mechanisms are currently in place, when were they implemented and by whom? 
• Was the University of California (UC) aware of Berkeley’s collaboration with PRC universities on the Entity List? Did UC approve of this collaboration? 
• Was UC aware of the presence of representatives from companies on the Entity List on TBSI’s Industrial Advisory Board? Did UC or UC Berkeley approve the board membership? 6. A TBSI team won a contest in April 2023 for 7 nanometer chip technology. Does Berkeley consider this activity to be in violation of the October 7th , 2022, restrictions on advanced chip manufacturing and research?22 Why or why not? 
• A 2018 Defense and Counterintelligence Security Agency document states that Tsinghua University has previously sought sensitive, dual-use, or export-controlled materials and components. 23 Has TBSI engaged in any research that could be, or has been, used by the PRC for military applications? 
• Has TBSI fundamental research in the United States or elsewhere involved the use of export-controlled technologies or software?
• Is TBSI conducting applied research in the PRC that would be covered by U.S. export control laws if this research were conducted in the United States?
• Has any TBSI research generated technology or goods subject to export controls? 8. Please describe the process by which TBSI determines which research projects to undertake and which research areas to prioritize. 
• Please produce all records maintained regarding TBSI alumni and their current or past affiliations. 
• TBSI’s Industrial Advisory Board features companies currently or formerly on the Commerce Department Entity List such as PRC telecom firms Huawei and ZTE.24 Please describe the role these companies play in TBSI’s operations and/or research. 
• Has any of TBSI’s research been sponsored by entities that are on the U.S. Entity List? If so, please provide a description of the sponsoring company and project. 
• Has any of TBSI’s research been sponsored by PRC entities that are engaged in human rights abuses, such as Tencent? 
• How does Berkeley manage its interests in intellectual property co-developed with TBSI? Has TBSI licensed any intellectual property (patents, trade secrets, semiconductor layout designs, etc.)? Please describe, including by providing any Chinese or foreign patent numbers, any intellectual property that has been licensed, the terms of the license agreement and to whom the intellectual property has been licensed. 
• Please provide a list of any patents or patent applications made in China using technology provided by or developed cooperatively with TSBI that were filed anonymously in the Chinese patent office.
• Has any PRC entity appropriated or attempted to appropriate intellectual property generated by Berkeley researchers for any reason? Please provide a detailed list of these intellectual property items, including any patent applications first filed in China for which the Chinese government denied approval for a foreign filing in the United States or elsewhere, whether or not any such intellectual property was misappropriated in China. 
• Please identify any Berkeley employees, contractors, or researchers involved with TBSI who have U.S. security clearances, or are subject to U.S. deemed export licenses, or otherwise have access to information which the United States protects from disclosure to foreign nationals or interests. When applying for research funding from federal grant providing agencies, have Berkeley faculty members who work as core principal investigators (PIs) disclosed their involvement in TBSI and any financial compensation they received as consultants? 
• Please provide all proposals for federal funding awarded to Berkeley faculty members while working in any capacity for TBSI.
• Please provide all contracts or agreements for Berkeley faculty members who have worked or are working as Core PIs, consultants, or in any other capacity at or for TBSI, including how much each has been paid.
• Please list all organizations or individuals that provided funding for the salary of Berkeley Core PIs involved with TBSI. 
• Please advise if TBSI researchers have been subjected to any blocking orders from the PRC government to require them to perform tasks that are contrary to U.S. export control laws, such as providing assistance to North Korea, Russia, or Iran. Please describe any procedures in place for TBSI PIs to handle such potential conflicts. 
• Provide a list of any scientific publications in Chinese and English that were authored or co-authored by Berkeley researchers in collaboration with TBSI. Please note in this list any research that is published only in China and is not available outside of China due to restrictions imposed by China National Knowledge Infrastructure or other government authority. 
• Please provide a list of all foreign funding that Berkeley has received for TBSI since its inception, including the date received, amount, and source. 
• Please describe the process by which the University of California assesses whether to report TSBI funding or contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. 
• How much has Tsinghua Education Foundation North America (TEFNA) raised for TBSI from 2014 to date? 
• Has the University of California disclosed TEFNA’s contributions to the Department of Education under Section 117? If not, why not? 
• Please list the specific research agreements that TEFNA has sponsored. 
• Please provide a translation of the Chinese language website of TBSI (https://www.tbsi.edu.cn) and explain the differences between that website and the English content, particularly regarding the technologies being researched and the role of Berkeley in the operation of TBSI.
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