Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is leading congressional efforts to prevent Chinese foreign nationals from accessing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories, citing national security concerns.
Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and 11 other Senate Republicans wrote to Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Jan. 13 requesting that the DOE take steps to prevent Chinese access to U.S. AI and energy innovation information under the Genesis Mission.
The Genesis Mission was launched under a November executive order that directed the DOE to build an integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputing platform to accelerate research and discovery across critical and emerging technologies – including biotechnology, quantum information science, and advanced materials
The Republicans’ letter to Wright noted that 3,200 Chinese foreign nationals were approved for access to national laboratory sites and projects in fiscal year 2024, and alleged that Chinese nationals will “turn everything they know over to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”
“America’s long-term scientific advancements and national security depend on the U.S. winning the global race for technology. The ‘Genesis Mission’… is necessary to achieve this victory, and harnessing the deep expertise found across the Department of Energy’s seventeen national laboratories is key,” the lawmakers wrote.
“China is our main competitor in the race for AI dominance, a position it occupies only because it has stolen American intellectual property and technologies and co-opted them over the years,” they added.
The senators warned that vetting is not a sufficient safeguard, writing that the number of Chinese nationals coming to work at the national laboratories outpaces DOE’s capacity to vet them. They added that vetting efforts may not catch CCP affiliations and that laboratory employees who might not directly work with the CCP can “be compelled in one way or another by the regime to turn over what they have learned.”
“[W]e respectfully recommend that you mitigate threats to Genesis Mission by promulgating a policy prohibiting the national laboratories from granting Chinese nationals access to any national laboratory site, information, or technology,” the senators wrote.
In addition to Cotton, the letter was signed by Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Ted Budd, R-N.C., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Jim Justice, R-W.Va., James Lankford, R-Okla., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Dave McCormick, R-Pa., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Todd Young, R-Ind.
The FBI has several launched investigations into China-affiliated espionage tied to the national laboratories. In addition, a private intelligence report found that 162 Chinese nationals returned to Chinese universities and research institutions between 1987 and 2021 after working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in California.
Notably, the FBI has said that “the adversary is not the Chinese people or people of Chinese descent or heritage. The threat comes from the programs and policies pursued by an authoritarian government.”
Concerns about the United States giving its technological edge away to China have been growing. One key area of concern is in semiconductors – used to power advanced AI – which officials and experts have warned must stay in the United States’ hands.
Recently, the Trump administration greenlit the sale of certain advanced AI chips to China, provided that the federal government receives 25% of the profit.