Recently, the U.S. House Select Committee on China set up a so-called "whistleblower" reporting channel on its official website. It openly encourages American scholars, researchers, and other professionals to report scientific collaborations involving entities linked to China's defense and industrial base. Responding to the move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing that the committee's efforts to suppress and contain China have reached an almost "hysterical" extent.
This assertion is hardly overstated. On social media, the committee justified its call for reports by citing concerns over "research security vulnerabilities" and the "risks" of cooperation with China. As evidence, it pointed to cases in which faculty members from the University of Washington and Texas A&M University co-authored academic papers with researchers from Chinese institutions listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's entity list. The implication is unmistakable: the committee seeks to sever ties between U.S. researchers and some of China's most important research institutions already under U.S. sanctions. Even co-authoring academic papers, the most basic form of scholarly exchange, now appears to be enough to trigger suspicion and reporting.
Labeling such collaboration as "risks" or "vulnerable" is not only misguided but fundamentally at odds with established norms. U.S. export control regulations themselves include a well-defined "fundamental research...
The President of the Association of Yorubas in Diaspora, South Africa, Dr Olusola Agbeniyi, has asked the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, to desist from making what he described ...