Universities Still Struggling to Comply With China-Related Disclosure, Export Control Requirements

The U.S. needs to strike a better balance between protecting sensitive U.S. technology from the Chinese government and fostering open academic environments for research and innovation, lawmakers said. But reaching that balance will be challenging, they said, and U.S. universities are struggling to comply with the complex array of export control regulations and disclosure requirements associated with Chinese tech acquisition and influence attempts.

“While classified research is protected through existing mechanisms, we still do not have a comprehensive understanding of what the risks are to fundamental research and how to draw that line,” Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said during a hearing this week in a House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee.

Universities have warned the U.S. against applying overly broad export controls on foundational technologies to avoid severely impacting U.S. fundamental research (see 2012020044). Although the controls could limit the Chinese government from infiltrating academic institutions to steal or acquire U.S. research, universities also said the controls could hinder U.S. competitiveness and innovation by unnecessarily restricting who U.S. scientists can collaborate with. Foster said the U.S. "must not let the solution be worse than the problem.”

The U.S. has tried to increase outreach with universities to help them better comply with regulations, especially as the Justice Department continues to tackle rising cases of Chinese government operatives infiltrating U.S. companies and universities to steal export-controlled technologies (see 2008130036).

But many universities don’t have the resources or the expertise to do as much due-diligence as the U.S. government would like, Maria Zuber, vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said during the hearing. Zuber, who is also a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, said universities can educate faculty and students about the requirements, but enforcing them can be difficult.

“We assume that if a student gets a visa, or researcher gets a visa, that they have been vetted by authorities who have experience in doing that,” Zuber said. “We do spot checks on people, but mostly we're there to educate.” In written remarks, Zuber said Chinese students who have been admitted into the U.S. should be able to participate in “any unclassified research project,” except in “very limited circumstances such as when participation would violate export controls.”

She added that universities should “ensure that their faculty are aware of all disclosure and export control requirements,” adding that MIT faculty “frankly crave guidance in the current climate.” She said the government can help by clarifying reporting requirements and other regulations. The Association of University Export Control Officers told the Defense Department last year that a lack of understanding of export controls in university settings is delaying or sometimes preventing research (see 2009180025).

“There has been a fair amount of, I'll say, confusion, about what actually needs to be disclosed and how it needs to be disclosed,” Zuber said. “There have been inadvertent errors in disclosures, and I think that's very, very separate. We need to separate that from real intents to deceive.”

Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., pointed to a recent paper issued by the National Science and Technology Council, which provided “much needed guidance and best practices” to U.S. universities. But she said more can be done. “We certainly recognize that we are in a global competition. We feel this every day here in metro Detroit with our automotive industry, where we want to make and sell products all over the world,” Stevens said. “But we don't necessarily have a lot of simple solutions.”

Zuber said she expects the administration to soon issue implementing guidance for a January memorandum on U.S. research and national security policies. The memorandum called on U.S. agencies to better coordinate disclosure requirements and conduct more outreach about export control and sanctions requirements. Zuber said that while the memo contained a “lot of positive aspects,” some were unclear.

“There was a lack of specificity,” she said. “Universities were being asked to comply with certain things, but they weren't being told what they needed to comply with in sufficient detail” and couldn’t “actually tell that they were compliant.” Zuber said she “provided input” to the White House about an upcoming guidance to expand on that memo. “I'm confident that the guidance will be helpful,” she said. The White House didn’t comment.