by Micaiah Bilger
The Georgia Institute of Technology is cutting ties with a “blacklisted” Chinese university associated with the country’s military, according to the U.S. House Education Committee.
The decision, first reported by Reuters last week, follows “scrutiny from Congress over [Georgia Tech’s] collaboration with entities allegedly linked to China’s military.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05), who chairs the House committee, said Georgia Tech should have ended its partnership with Tianjin University a long time ago.
The Republican lawmaker described Tianjin as “a blacklisted institution with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its military.”
“The captain of the Titanic didn’t get a gold star for passing out life vests, and it shouldn’t have taken a Congressional investigation to spur Georgia Tech to end its partnership with a blacklisted Chinese entity,” Foxx said in a statement last week. “Nonetheless, we’re glad that Georgia Tech has made the right call and we hope other universities follow its lead.”
Reuters reports:
In May, the House of Representatives’ select committee on China 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 added in 2020 to the U.S. Commerce Department’s export restrictions list for actions contrary to U.S. national security, including trade secret theft and research collaboration to advance China’s military.
Spokesperson Abbigail Tumpey told Reuters in an email 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 (GTSI), no longer tenable,” Tumpey said.
Georgia Tech, a top tier U.S. engineering school and major recipient of Defense Department funding, said in an accompanying statement it would discontinue its participation in the Shenzhen institute, but that the approximately 300 students currently in programs there would have the opportunity to fulfill their degree requirements.
Federal government officials have had their eye on the school and its connections to China for years.
In 2021, the Department of Justice indicted a Georgia Tech professor, Gee-Kung Chang, “on federal charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud,” according to a news release from the agency.
The DOJ also indicted Jianjun Yu, a New Jersey resident, who worked for the Chinese-owned ZTE Corporation, a telecommunications firm, The College Fix reported at the time.
Yu and Chang were accused of working together to bring Chinese nationals to the U.S. under the guise of them conducting research at Georgia Tech under the J-1 visa program, according to the department.
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Micaiah Bilger is an assistant editor at The College Fix.
Photo “Georgia Tech” by Georgia Tech.
