Republican Senator Joni Ernst has warned that “foreign adversaries,” including China and Russia, are infiltrating U.S. research facilities after a recent congressional report revealed that thousands of foreign nationals were granted access to the sites last year.
“National laboratories are prime targets for espionage and theft by foreign adversaries,” the Iowa lawmakers wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday.
“For decades, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has actively recruited scientists from our national laboratories to work on its own military projects and used visiting students and scholars to steal our research.”
Ernst asked the Department of Energy to submit data on access by Chinese, Russian and Iranian nationals to its 17 national laboratories in recent years.
She cited a Senate Intelligence Committee report that found that in fiscal year 2023, “approximately 40,000 foreign nationals, including more than 8,000 nationals of China and Russia, were granted access to the laboratory's grounds, information and technology.”
“After COVID-19, we should have learned our lesson about trusting Communist Chinese scientists,” the Hawkeye State Republican told The Post.
“We know that adversaries are using sophisticated espionage to steal research, so we don't need to invite them in.”
For details of the parliamentary report's findings, Recent legislation has revealed It was endorsed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) earlier this year.
Ernst's office estimates that more than 4,400 scientists from China and more than 300 from Russia have visited the Department of Energy's network of laboratories this year.
The Iowa senator is currently requesting data on the number of visitors from Russia, China and Iran to national laboratories in fiscal years 2024, 2023 and 2022.
She also wants information about the number of individuals identified in advance as posing a “counterintelligence risk.”
Ernst set a deadline of November 29th for Granholm's team to submit its data.
The Department of Energy operates 17 national laboratories across the country, including Ames National Laboratory in Iowa.
Rising geopolitical tensions with China, Russia and Iran have raised concerns about protecting U.S. technological secrets.
For example, in March, U.S. citizens The suspect arrested was To steal secrets from Google's artificial intelligence program.
Some It is estimated that The United States loses approximately $600 billion a year to intellectual property theft caused by Chinese espionage.
Ernst has previously worked on legislation to address concerns about trade secrets in the United States. For example, in 2022She helped write a bill aimed at blocking Chinese and Russian companies from obtaining sensitive technology secrets through Small Business Administration programs.
She also sponsored a bill to ban funding for research in hostile countries.
The Post reached out to a Department of Energy spokesman for comment.
