House GOP Demands Investigation Into Chinese Ties to Top U.S. Nuclear and Weapons Site

House Republicans
are calling on the
Biden administration
to investigate the
Chinese government’s

economic espionage efforts
at U.S. research labs following a damning report about Beijing’s apparent extensive efforts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Republicans wrote to “express our serious concerns” about a new report seeming to show decadeslong Chinese government-linked infiltration into New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. weapons and nuclear research site, “and to learn what steps your offices are taking to protect our critical research from malign talent recruitment programs.”

The Tuesday letter, led by Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and 10 other House Republicans, was addressed to
Secretary of Energy
Jennifer Granholm and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar.

US UNPREPARED TO HANDLE CHINESE INTEL INFILTRATION

Waltz told the Washington Examiner, “The Chinese Communist Party, particularly under Xi Jinping, explicitly aims to become the dominant world superpower in the next decade, and they aim to do it through technology.” He said the Chinese government is “rapidly passing us in those areas because they are stealing their way to the top — and a key avenue for which they are stealing their way to the top is through our research labs.”

The congressman added that “it’s almost a fait accompli that [the Chinese government] got some of our sensitive technologies” through the communist nation’s efforts at Los Alamos.

The warning was sparked by a September
report
by Strider Technologies, a private intelligence firm, titled “The Los Alamos Club: How the People’s Republic of China Recruited Leading Scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory to Advance Its Military Programs.”

The report concluded that at least 162 scientists who had worked at Los Alamos returned to China “to support a variety of domestic research and development programs” between 1987 and 2021, with 15 of the scientists having worked as permanent staff at Los Alamos and, of the 15, 13 having been recruited into “Chinese government talent programs.” The investigation found at least 59 of the scientists had been part of China’s Thousand Talents Program or its Youth Thousand Talents Program.

The FBI has
repeatedly

warned
about China’s Thousand Talents economic espionage program, and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) released a report in July about how that Chinese effort also
targeted the Federal Reserve over many years
.

“The Department of Energy’s world-leading national laboratories, like Los Alamos National Laboratory, play a critical role in the U.S. research ecosystem,” the House Republicans wrote, adding, “Unfortunately, ‘The Los Alamos Club’ confirms the concerns surrounding malign talent recruitment programs, clearly demonstrating that the CCP’s had been successful at stealing and capitalizing on our research and development. As a result, these malign talent recruitment programs have now resulted in a tangible national security threat to the United States.”

The Los Alamos Club report contended that “since returning to China, Los Alamos alumni have helped the PRC advance key military and dual-use technologies in areas such as hypersonics, deep-earth penetrating warheads, unmanned autonomous vehicles, jet engines, and submarine noise reduction.”

A former Los Alamos scientist
pleaded guilty
in 2020 to a charge of making a false statement to a federal investigator about his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Program. He received
five years of probation
.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in March that the Chinese government remains the
“absolutely unparalleled” long-term priority
for the U.S. intelligence community

The Energy Department didn’t respond directly to the Los Alamos Club report findings last month.

“In response to growing research security threats, the Department of Energy has taken significant steps in recent years, including the adoption of rigorous vetting, counterintelligence reviews, and restrictions on participation in foreign talent programs,” a department spokesman
said
. “The Department of Energy also implements procedures to ensure compliance with U.S. export licensing requirements, including those governing the release of controlled technology to foreign nationals in the United States.”

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