The Seven Sons of China are Stealing our Stuff

...and the academic establishment is fine with it...

Those who follow me on X know that every couple of months I remind everyone that we are gleefully training those whose life’s work is to defeat this nation.

If you have been to a major top-shelf university or research institution’s graduation ceremony in the last two decades, one thing that dramatically stands out is how many People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals are receiving not just undergraduate degrees, but master’s degrees and PhDs in the most highly skilled STEM fields from biostatistics to quantum physics. From aerospace engineering to industrial design—PRC nationals are overrepresented to an outlandish degree.

Don’t forget, these are the places basic research starts, where the future technology is developed. This is also a zero-sum game with a finite number of positions. For each PRC national who is getting a PhD in a STEM field, that is one American who is not. They either don’t go, or have to find a lower-tier university to go to.

It isn’t just private institutions. At one of my daughters’ graduation ceremonies at a major land-grant university, the university was proud of the fact that they had more international students than out-of-state students.

Think about that. Let it soak in.

In some STEM fields, 4 out of 5 or more are non-American.

I’m not interested in excuses. The future will be won or lost by those who master emerging technology…or the methods to defend against them.

I also don’t want to hear the, “…but they pay full price…” If that is your argument, then we already know what you and your institution are, we are just haggling over the price.

I know that administrative bloat won’t pay for itself, but I don’t care. Return to 1996 levels and train Americans. Public or private institutions, they all receive government funds. There is leverage.

Enough of my commentary. Our friend Jerry Dunleavy has one of the most important articles related to our future national security that I’ve read so far this year.

Yes, national security.

This is not so much an education story or an economic argument. No, especially in STEM fields, this is about national security—ours and our allies’.

The House Select Committee on the CCP said last year that the “Seven Sons” are “a group of elite Chinese universities known for their deep ties to the PLA and central role in military research and development.”

The House committee assessed that these seven academies are “China’s leading defense-focused universities, whose primary mission is to advance defense research and development and drive state-directed military-civil fusion efforts” and that “most maintain partnerships with state-owned defense conglomerates and operate as training grounds for future military leaders, engineers, and technicians working on weapons systems and defense programs.”

The committee warned that the Seven Sons “play a central role in developing advanced military technologies, including hypersonic weapons, unmanned systems, cyber warfare tools, and aerospace engineering, often in direct coordination with the PLA and its affiliates” and that “graduates from these institutions frequently enter roles within China’s military, intelligence, or state-owned defense enterprises.”

Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology wrote in 2020 that “the Seven Sons of National Defense are important feeders for China’s military and defense industry.” The center said the Seven Sons “contribute the lion’s share of new hires at Chinese defense state-owned enterprises” and “produce nearly three quarters of the elite university graduates hired by China’s largest defense companies.”

The Hoover Institution in 2020 argued that the Seven Sons “act as fronts for and extensions of the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security” and “directly support military-civil fusion; the PLA; and the defense research and industrial base, weapons programs, and myriad other entities that are part of the PRC’s military, public security, and surveillance apparatus.”

The RAND Corporation also warned in 2023 that the “Seven Sons universities contain researchers likely to be tied to China’s military-civil fusion strategy.”

SASTIND grads also make their way to America

The House CCP Committee referred to SASTIND as a “Chinese defense agency” linked to the PLA. The committee’s report from last year said that SASTIND “co-administers 58 Chinese universities — out of more than 3,000 Chinese universities — engaged in military-civil fusion research.”

Let’s look at this parade of horrors.

Dr. Ziang Yu poses an immediate threat to U.S. security. Dr. Yu’s attendance at one of China’s leading defense universities only raises further concerns.”

Yu’s LinkedIn page and Google Scholar page say that he is a postdoctoral associate with the University of Wisconsin’s department of nuclear engineering and engineering physics.

The Chinese scientist’s LinkedIn profile also says he received an undergraduate degree at Northwestern Polytechnical University. It has been dubbed one of the CCP’s “Seven Sons of National Defense.”

Yes, nuclear engineering and engineering physics. Somewhere, there is an American who applied for that slot and was denied.

They are not coming to the U.S. for Gender Studies PhDs.

The university has long been on U.S. government blacklists, including being blacklisted by the Pentagon. The Defense Department has the Chinese school on its list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activity” and says this list “is an important continuing effort in highlighting and countering mechanisms of unwanted technology transfer to foreign countries of concern.”

The Commerce Department in 2021 described the school as “a Chinese military university that is heavily involved in military research and works closely with the People’s Liberation Army on the advancement of its military capabilities.”

The House Select Committee on the CCP described the school as “a core Chinese military university” last year. The House committee said that the school “was created by the merging of several engineering universities and institutions — including the Air Force Engineering Department of the PLA Military Engineering Institute.” The committee said the university “hosts 13 major defense laboratories and 44 designated defense research areas.”

How many Americans are studying such things at PRC universities? We both know the answer.

Yu’s school profile says he is a postdoc research associate at the Microstructure Materials Modeling group at Wisconsin, which is also called “Professor Yongfeng Zhang’s Research Group.” Dr. Yongfeng Zhang of the University of Wisconsin himself received two degrees from the University of Science and Technology of China, according to his online biography.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added that particular Chinese university to a blacklist “for acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of advancing China’s quantum technology capabilities, which has serious ramifications for U.S. national security given the military applications of quantum technologies” and said it was “involved in advancing China’s nuclear program development.”

Zhang was previously a senior member of the U.S. government’s Center for Thermal Energy Transport under Irradiation, and was also a staff scientist in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Department at Idaho National Lab. Zhang did not respond to a request for comment.

The Wisconsin lab, led by Zhang and counting Yu as a member, receives funding from the Energy Department’s Nuclear Energy University Program, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Yu’s co-author for a 2025 research paper received support from the Idaho National Lab.

This is no isolated incident. It gets worse.

The AAF report assessed that “Zongliang Xie is conducting research in fields that have potential military applications. He is doing so at Lawrence National Laboratory, a lab with a substantial amount of federal funding. The Chinese University, which Xie attended, is a high-risk institution due to its ties with the CCP military’s adjacent research.”

Xie’s LinkedIn page lists him as a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and his Google Scholar page lists him there too. Xie is part of the Molecular Foundry at the lab, and he says that “I’m working on AI-driven polymer design and nanocomposite fabrication techs.” Xie’s LinkedIn profile also says he received a PhD and undergraduate degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

The Pentagon has the Chinese school on its list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activity,” and the House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that Xi’an Jiaotong is administered by SASTIND.

No one is hiding anything here.

Oh, everyone is aware of the PRC’s 2017 National Intelligence Law and the 2015 National Security Law, yes? If not, read up on it here and continue.

“Jinghan Gao’s research on high-temperature-resistant materials and related work in energy-efficient storage and semiconductor technologies represent serious dual-use risk technology and national security concerns.”

Gao’s LinkedIn page and her University of Florida profile say she received her PhD and her undergraduate degree at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Gao’s LinkedIn says she was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida until last year, but that she is now a postdoc fellow at the University of Michigan. Her Google Scholar profile lists her at Michigan, and the electrical and computer engineering department at Michigan lists her as a research fellow. “Jinghan Gao was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,” a spokesperson for the University of Florida told Just the News. “She left UF in 2025 in good standing.” The spokesperson did not answer specific questions related to any concerns the U.S. university may have had about Gao’s attendance at a Chinese military-linked school. The University of Michigan did not respond to a request for comment.

Gao is still listed as a post-doctoral research associate at the Interdisciplinary Microsystems Group at the University of Florida, where she is listed as a member of Professor Roozbeh Tabrizian’s Research Group.

The “sponsors” for the microsystems group include the National Energy Technology Laboratory, NIH, NASA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and DARPA.

Let me repeat this again: there is an American citizen—someone who has loyalty to our nation—who did not get these fellowships that you paid for, but instead is being used to grow the intellectual capital of our nation’s #1 competitor on the world stage.

It keeps going.

Xiaoyi Chen … “an expert in AI machine learning, who comes to the U.S. from PLA-tied universities, and whose mentor (Wang) at Indiana University was raided by the FBI.”

Chen’s GitHub page states that “I’m currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Indiana University Bloomington, under the supervision of Prof. XiaoFeng Wang and Prof. Haixu Tang. Before joining Indiana University, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Software and Theory from Peking University.”

The House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that Peking University is administered by SASTIND. ASPI says that Peking University “is assessed as high risk for its high number of defence laboratories and defence research areas, strong relationship with the defence industry, supervision by SASTIND, secret-level security clearance, and links to China’s nuclear weapons program.” The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2022 also said the Chinese military’s air force “established the ‘Dual-Enrollment Program’ with” Peking University.

…

Chen, for her part, lists her research areas as “Backdoor Attacks and Defenses” and “AI Web Security.” Indiana University has previously highlighted Chen’s AI research work under Wang’s guidance. Chen also previously conducted web application firewall research funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

There are so many PRC nationals that they now have their own self-supporting networks inside our lifelines

We are letting this happen in the open.

“Bao Xianyang, at Harvard, who is working on Department of War-funded polymers research that could enhance the PLA’s capabilities in a broad variety of military materiel, from vehicles to protective equipment to weapons.”

Bao’s LinkedIn says he studied at the South China University of Technology. The House Select Committee on the CCP assessed in 2025 that the school is administered by SASTIND. The China Aerospace Studies Institute said the South China University of Technology is a “PLA and defense-aligned” college.

Bao has a profile at Michigan State which says that he is a postdoctoral research associate at the Extreme Soft Materials Laboratory, which aims at developing next-generation technologies” including “physics-empowered tactile robots.” The profile for Bao at Michigan State says that “he aims to develop tough and sustainable soft materials for engineering and biomedical applications.”

Jerry’s article has an incredibly large amount of additional information. Give it a full read.

Reading it is just an emotional nightmare. We don’t have to do this. This is a choice. No one is forcing this on us.

But we are allowing it to happen.

Board of Regents/Trustees/Visitors. Chancellors. Governors. Senators. Representatives. Presidents.

All share this national disgrace.

Who will take action?