News Desk
Washington — The United States needs to do more to shield its scientific research from Chinese citizens, including potentially barring them from national laboratories, lawmakers and experts warned on Thursday. The renewed push reflects growing anxiety over America’s ability to protect its intellectual property while staying a global leader in innovation—a tension that’s only getting sharper.
Paul Dabbar, who served as undersecretary for science at the Department of Energy under President Donald Trump and now heads Bohr Quantum Technology in California, didn’t mince words during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing. “There’s been literally a whole generation of successful efforts by Communist China on stealing stuff,” he said. His fix? A blanket ban on Chinese nationals at the nation’s 17 national labs, with exceptions only if the Energy Department grants a waiver.
Those labs, overseen by the Department of Energy, are a big deal—think breakthroughs in nuclear weapons, clean energy, and artificial intelligence. But the fear is that foreign nationals, especially from China, could walk away with sensitive know-how.
Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wants to lock it down even tighter. He’s been championing a bill that would block citizens from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from the labs unless they can prove their presence is worth the risk. That legislation cleared committee last Congress but didn’t make it to law. Still, Cotton’s not letting up—he pointed out that in fiscal year 2023, 8,000 Chinese and Russian citizens got access to the labs.
The Biden administration’s not fully on board, though. They’ve argued the proposal could kneecap the labs, which rely on a global talent pool.
Foreign-born workers make up 19 percent of the U.S. STEM workforce, per a 2024 National Science Foundation report. Plus, they already screen everyone who steps foot in these facilities. But that hasn’t eased the minds of lawmakers—mostly Republicans—who see espionage risks looming large, especially from China, Iran, and Russia.
A lot of the worry circles back to China’s Thousand Talents program. Started in 2008, it’s designed to lure top scientists—often Chinese-born, trained in the West—back to China.
“The CCP systematically recruited elite scientists, nationals of the People’s Republic of China who were trained in the West, built their careers in American labs and worked with American funding,” said Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who chairs the energy committee. “It’s a deliberate strategy to leverage U.S. taxpayer-funded expertise for the benefit of the Chinese military.”
He noted that Chinese laws obligate citizens to share intelligence, which only fuels the unease.
Democrats see a flip side. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the committee’s top Democrat, argued at the hearing that the Trump administration’s workforce cuts at agencies like the Department of Energy were just as big a security threat.
“Not all threats come from foreign entities,” he said. “President Trump is doing exactly what our adversaries want. They aren’t losing their best experts.” When Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine who leans Democratic, asked if a total ban might cost the U.S. scientific breakthroughs, Dabbar stuck to his guns: ban first, waive later.
Other voices chimed in with ideas. Anna Puglisi from the Hoover Institution and Geraldine Richmond from the University of Oregon suggested a national center for open-source info to help universities spot research threats, plus an international code of conduct for visiting scientists. It’s all part of a broader scramble to protect American research without choking off the talent pipeline.
Over in the House, Republicans are turning up the heat too. John Moolenaar, who leads the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, sent letters to three Michigan universities—Eastern Michigan, Oakland, and the University of Detroit Mercy—urging them to ditch partnerships with Chinese schools. They’re worried about China gaining a technological edge. The University of Michigan already cut ties last month under similar pressure.
This tug-of-war—openness versus security—isn’t new, but it’s getting louder. With both sides digging in, the question is whether the U.S. can keep its labs humming without handing its rivals the keys. For now, no one’s got a perfect answer.
