U.S. Lawmakers Urge Duke to End Partnership With Wuhan University

The chairmen of two U.S. House of Representatives committees sent a letter to Duke University this week urging the school to end its partnership with Wuhan University in Kunshan, China.

Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, the chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, wrote that Duke Kunshan University is directly “advancing China’s military and technological ambitions at the expense of the American taxpayer,” according to the letter.

“Given the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) well-documented efforts to exploit U.S. academic openness, this partnership creates a direct pipeline between U.S. innovation and China’s military-industrial complex,” the two Republicans wrote in the letter dated Wednesday that was shared with The Assembly.

Founded in 2013, Duke Kunshan University is a joint campus between Duke and Wuhan University that enrolls more than 2,000 undergraduate students. The chairmen argued that Wuhan University is a “direct extension of the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus,” claiming that the school operates under Chinese laws that require students to complete mandatory military training.

“Duke is in receipt of Rep. Moolenaar and Rep. Walberg’s letter,” a Duke spokesperson said. “Duke respects Congress’s important oversight role and will work to further educate Congress about Duke’s global education mission.”

The letter criticized the connections of researchers and graduates from the school, including researchers who have worked with private companies at the “forefront of Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy” and graduates who went on to work at such companies. In particular, the chairmen singled out a Duke researcher who took a camera technology start-up to Duke Kunshan University after the U.S. rejected the technology for military surveillance. Now, Moolenaar and Walberg said China uses that technology as part of its “surveillance apparatus.”

The letter also cited a first-person account in The Assembly in which a Duke University student chronicled a free trip that she and dozens of other Duke students took to China. Students said they were often pressured to speak with Chinese media and say positive things about the country, including phrases like “I love China” in Mandarin. Duke acknowledged mistakes with the program and said in the future it would put additional boundaries on Chinese media’s access to students.

The chairmen wrote that the story “exposed Duke Kunshan University’s role in CCP propaganda operations.”

The letter comes amid tensions between the U.S. and China over issues such as tariffs and national security. The Trump administration is also scrutinizing universities’ international partnerships and other potential foreign influences in higher education. 

A report last fall by the two House committees documented several cases in which they said American researchers had “enabled” military training and technology in China, pointing to joint academic programs and institutes between the two countries as key vehicles. The report singled out more than 20 American universities with joint programs in China. Four of those schools—Oakland University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan—have announced that they will end their partnerships.

“Their decisive actions reflect agreement that U.S. universities must not continue partnerships that force American taxpayers to fund weapons that could one day be used against our own military service members and citizens,” the chairmen wrote to Duke. “Following these clear precedents, we strongly urge you to end your partnership with Wuhan University.”

Erin Gretzinger is a higher education reporter at The Assembly. She was previously a reporting fellow at The Chronicle of Higher Education and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. You can reach her at erin@theassemblync.com.