Microsoft Research Asia, a significant facility located in Beijing and Shanghai, is still engaged in AI research, including areas involving facial recognition, even with ties to sanctioned Chinese military-related universities, which raises concerns about potential misuse. Microsoft, however, insists there are safeguards in place to manage such sensitive research at the lab.
Founded in 1998, Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) has trained around 5,000 interns as of 2016, with many moving on to prestigious universities and major tech companies in China. Presently, the lab employs over 300 scientists and researchers split between its Shanghai and Beijing offices.
As scrutiny of Microsoft’s role in China has intensified alongside deteriorating US-China relations, the company has sought to clarify its distance from MSRA’s strong connections with the Chinese government’s surveillance practices.
In 2024, Microsoft affirmed that MSRA imposes restrictions on research related to “quantum computing, facial recognition, and synthetic media,” and there are supposed prohibitions against collaborating with institutions tied to the Chinese military.
Contrary to this, industry critics have noted that since March 2024, researchers at MSRA have released ten papers discussing facial recognition or synthetic media, often co-authored with affiliated researchers from Chinese government-linked universities or military institutions. This raises questions about whether the purported limitations on MSRA’s research are effective.
Experts have pointed out that nine of these papers feature co-authors from three licensed Chinese universities. Notably, two of them—Beihang University and the Harbin Institute of Technology—are associated with the “Seven Sons of National Defense,” a group informally linked to the military.
Those three universities involved with MSRA are:
- Beihang University, which was authorized by the U.S. in March 2023 for its contributions to China’s military modernization.
- Harbin Institute of Technology, recognized in 2020 for its role in missile system acquisitions that support the People’s Liberation Army.
- China University of Science and Technology, which received a May 2024 authorization for its contributions to China’s quantum technology and nuclear program development.
Reports from 2022 indicated that MSRA had quietly ceased hiring from the “seven sons” and other closely related universities. Still, research seems to persist, as shown by the continued output of academic papers from MSRA.
One notable paper, “Personmae: Re-identification Pretraining People Using Masked Autoencoders,” highlights the potential risks surrounding MSRA’s research, focusing on tracking individuals across various cameras—a technology that can easily be applied for mass surveillance purposes. In 2022, another publication in the journal Scientia Sinica Information emphasized this point, linking the research directly to intelligent surveillance systems and China’s extensive real-time surveillance camera network.
MSRA’s associations with universities linked to the People’s Liberation Army are not a recent development. Back in 2019, the Financial Times reported that Microsoft was collaborating on AI research, including facial recognition, with a university associated with the Chinese Ministry of Defense.
These connections reflect an interesting contradiction: Microsoft presents itself as a counter to China while often benefitting from its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. After Trump’s election, Microsoft called for a government partnership to contend with China in AI, despite previously investing over $1 billion into AI research within China. The company has also asserted that ChatGPT would not be permitted in China while making it available through Azure Service.
