American taxpayers have been funding China’s military rise.
That’s not hyperbole. That’s the conclusion of a congressional report released Wednesday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee.
Over 4,300 academic papers between June 2023 and June 2025 involved collaborations between Department of Energy-funded researchers and Chinese scientists. Half of those papers included Chinese contributors affiliated with China’s military or defense industrial base.
Your tax dollars. Their nuclear weapons.
24 Papers Directly Connected to China’s Nuclear Weapons Program
Let that sink in.
The report identified at least 24 publications produced during the two-year period that acknowledged DOE funding and were conducted in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics.
That’s China’s primary nuclear weapons research and development complex. The place where they design the warheads pointed at American cities.
American scientists, funded by American taxpayers, collaborated with Chinese nuclear weapons developers.
And the Department of Energy let it happen.
“This Investigation Reveals a Deeply Alarming Problem”
Rep. John Moolenaar, who chairs the Select Committee on the CCP, didn’t mince words:
“The Department of Energy failed to ensure the security of its research and it put American taxpayers on the hook for funding the military rise of our nation’s foremost adversary.”
He continued: “The department must stop providing funding to grantees who allow this exploitation and protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”
The DOE oversees the most sensitive research in America: nuclear energy, nuclear weapons development, quantum computing. The agency trusted with our most dangerous secrets was sharing them with China.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory — Collaborating With Chinese Military Companies
One example from the report is particularly egregious.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee co-authored a 2023 paper on electronic conductivity with China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.
That’s a state-owned Chinese defense conglomerate. It’s been designated by both the Treasury Department and the Pentagon as a Chinese military company operating in the United States.
Designated. As a military company. Operating here.
And American researchers were publishing papers with them.
The “Military-Civil Fusion” Strategy We Keep Ignoring
The Chinese Communist Party has a policy called “military-civil fusion.” It’s not a secret. It’s official strategy.
Under this policy, any civilian research can be adapted for military use. Chinese researchers working on “civilian” projects are expected to share their findings with the military.
There is no separation between Chinese academia and Chinese defense. When American scientists collaborate with Chinese researchers, they’re collaborating with the Chinese military — whether they know it or not.
The DOE knew this policy existed. The intelligence community has been warning about it for years. And still, the collaborations continued.
Cyberattacks, Human Rights Abuses, Surveillance State
The report found collaborations with Chinese entities accused of:
- Conducting cyberattacks against the United States
- Participating in human rights abuses
- Supporting China’s surveillance state
These aren’t hypothetical concerns. These are documented activities by organizations that American researchers were partnering with.
Your tax dollars, funding research that helped entities attacking American infrastructure and oppressing Chinese citizens.
This Isn’t New — It’s Been Going On for Years
A Daily Caller investigation in March found that the Department of War and the DOE funded more than 100 research projects using Chinese government supercomputers — supercomputers sanctioned by the U.S. for collaborating with China’s military.
Other federal agencies have awarded sensitive scientific, military, and energy grants to researchers participating in Chinese government programs linked to economic espionage.
This has been happening for years. Under multiple administrations. With full knowledge that China was exploiting these partnerships.
The bureaucracy knew. They just didn’t care enough to stop it.
The Scope Is Staggering
Let’s put the numbers in context.
4,300 academic papers in two years. That’s about six papers per day involving collaboration between DOE-funded researchers and Chinese scientists.
Half of those — roughly 2,150 papers — included Chinese contributors tied to military or defense-linked entities.
Every single day, American taxpayers were funding research that helped China’s military capabilities. Every. Single. Day.
Why This Keeps Happening
The academic-industrial complex has incentives that don’t align with national security.
Universities want research funding. Scientists want publications. Agencies want to show results.
Chinese partnerships provide all of these. Chinese institutions are eager to collaborate. They bring resources, data, and co-authors.
What they take in return — knowledge, techniques, breakthroughs — goes directly to China’s military. But that cost doesn’t show up on any university’s balance sheet.
“Longstanding Policy Failures and Inaction”
The report’s conclusion is damning:
“These longstanding policy failures and inaction have left taxpayer-funded research vulnerable to exploitation by China’s defense research and industrial base and state-directed technology transfer activities.”
Longstanding. This wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t an oversight. It was years of policy failures that everyone knew about and nobody fixed.
The bureaucracy failed. The oversight failed. The entire system designed to protect sensitive research failed.
And American taxpayers paid for China’s military modernization.
What Needs to Happen Now
The DOE needs to implement immediate restrictions on collaborations with Chinese military-linked entities.
Funding should be revoked from grantees who partner with designated Chinese military companies.
Security clearance reviews should be conducted for researchers who’ve collaborated extensively with Chinese defense organizations.
And Congress needs to exercise actual oversight — not just write reports, but enforce consequences.
The Bigger Picture
This report is part of a broader pattern.
China has been systematically extracting technology, knowledge, and expertise from the United States for decades. Through cyber espionage. Through talent recruitment programs. Through “academic partnerships” that are really intelligence operations.
We’ve known this was happening. We’ve written reports about it. We’ve held hearings about it.
And then we kept funding it anyway.
Your Money, Their Weapons
Here’s what this comes down to.
You pay taxes. Those taxes fund the Department of Energy. The DOE gives grants to researchers. Those researchers collaborate with Chinese scientists. Those Chinese scientists work for organizations that develop nuclear weapons aimed at the United States.
The chain is direct. The connection is documented. The consequence is clear.
American taxpayers have been involuntarily funding China’s ability to threaten American cities with nuclear annihilation.
That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s a congressional finding based on 4,300 academic papers.
Sleep well knowing your government has been this incompetent for this long.
And demand that it stop.