Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is expressing concerns about potential espionage and theft of US research by foreign adversaries, including China and Russia, infiltrating US laboratories. A recent congressional report revealed that thousands of foreign citizens were granted access to the research facilities last year. In a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Ernst emphasized the high risk for espionage at National Laboratories and mentioned that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has actively been recruiting scientists from these labs for their own military programs, stealing US research through visiting students and scholars.
Sen. Ernst is demanding data about access granted to Chinese, Russian, and Iranian nationals in recent years at the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories. She cited a Senate Intelligence Committee report revealing that approximately 40,000 citizens from foreign countries, including over 8,000 Chinese and Russian citizens, were granted access to premises, information, or technology of these labs in fiscal year 2023.
The Iowa senator is concerned about the potential for espionage after the COVID-19 pandemic, during which it was discovered that some Chinese scientists had not been entirely trustworthy. She stated that US adversaries already have sophisticated espionage programs to steal research and do not need access to US labs.
Details of the congressional report’s findings were included in a recent bill backed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) earlier this year. Some estimates suggest that over 4,400 Chinese scientists and 300 Russian scientists visited the Energy Department’s network of laboratories this year. Sen. Ernst is requesting data on the number of visitors to national labs from Russia, China, and Iran in fiscal years 2024, 2023, and 2022, as well as information about the number of those individuals found to be “counterintelligence risks” prior to their visits.
Sen. Ernst has given a deadline of November 29th for Granholm’s team to provide the requested data. The Energy Department currently operates 17 national laboratories across the country, including the Ames National Laboratory in Iowa. Amid heightened geopolitical tensions with China, Russia, and Iran, there have been increasing concerns about protecting US technological secrets.
For example, a US national was arrested earlier this year for allegedly attempting to steal secrets from Google’s Artificial Intelligence program. Estimates suggest that the US is losing around $600 billion annually due to intellectual property theft by Chinese espionage. Sen. Ernst had previously worked on legislation addressing concerns about US trade secrets, including a bill aimed at stopping Chinese and Russian firms from obtaining sensitive tech secrets through Small Business Administration programs in 2022.
Additionally, she supported legislation banning funds for research conducted in adversarial nations. The Energy Department has not yet commented on the issue.
