On June 1, the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology sent a letter to the National Science Foundation, or NSF, that alleged UC Berkeley failed to disclose a $240 million donation from the Chinese government and asked NSF to implement new research security protocols, according to the committee’s press release. The allegations are “false and based, in their entirety, on a story that ran in the Daily Beast on May 22,” according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof. Mogulof said the story is “rife with errors and significant omissions.” Campus allegedly exchanged the donation for “exclusive tours” of research facilities to Chinese researchers and government officials, according to the House committee’s press release. Heather Vaughan, House committee spokesperson, alleged campus’s failure to disclose the donation to the U.S. government is “troubling.” “The Chinese Communist Party has been open that one way they intend to take the global lead in science and technology is by acquiring American intellectual property, whether that’s through foreign talent programs, forced acquisition, or other illicit methods,” Vaughan said in an email. Mogulof, however, emphasized that campus did not and will not receive funds from the Shenzhen government. Campus’s understanding was that the funds were proposed to be used for Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute campus, but that campus was never built and the investment did not occur, according to Mogulof. Instead, the money was used to construct a new campus for the Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, or TSIGS, Mogulof said. He clarified that this campus belongs to Tsinghua University. “Funding in that amount had, at one time, been proposed for a Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) campus, but plans changed and the investment never happened,” Mogulof said in an email. Mogulof further emphasized that campus had no ownership — nor any agreements or plans to receive ownership interest — in any Shenzhen facilities and therefore is legally not required to report the funding under the Department of Education Section 117. He also said it would not be appropriate to report the funding since it was used for a separate institution — TSIGS, not TBSI. Mougulof added that campus is open to responding to any questions from the committee chairs, Chairman Representative Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma, Representative Mike Collins, R-Georgia, or any additional federal inquiries regarding the allegations. “UC Berkeley has an unwavering commitment to transparency and takes concerns about national security very seriously,” Mogulof said in the email. “As a result, we welcome the opportunity to answer questions related to Berkeley.”
Campus addresses 'false' allegations of monetary gifts from the Chinese government
- By Lucía Umeki-Martínez
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