Pentagon's China Warning Prompts Calls To Vet US Funding of Startups

Congress may soon require government agencies to vet tech startups seeking federal funding, after a Defense Department study found China is exploiting a popular program that funds innovation among small American companies. From a report: The study, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, found China is using state-sponsored methods to target companies that have received Pentagon funding from the Small Business Innovation Research program. The SBIR program for decades has sought to promote innovation through a competitive U.S. government award process.

The April 2021 report, which has been circulating among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, details eight case studies it says have "national and economic security implications." The studies include examples of program participants who dissolve their American companies, join Chinese government talent programs and continue their work at institutions that support the People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party. The report also documents instances of SBIR recipients taking venture-capital money from Chinese state-owned firms and of working with Chinese entities that support the country's defense industry. The report concludes that the SBIR program needs a due-diligence process to identify entities of potential concern that would then receive a more detailed review.

Re:

[cayenne8]

If we are not prepared to make some different and highly limiting rules of the road for Chinese nationals (note I don't mean US Citizens who may be of Chinese decent here)

We might, before giving govt. funding, especially military connected govt funding...restrict it to 3rd generation Chinese US citizens.

Too easy for China to sponsor and send over people to apply for and gain US citizenship and still be loyal to China.

Let's stretch that to 1-2 generations of US citizens.

Re:

[larryjoe]

If we are not prepared to make some different and highly limiting rules of the road for Chinese nationals (note I don't mean US Citizens who may be of Chinese decent here)

We might, before giving govt. funding, especially military connected govt funding...restrict it to 3rd generation Chinese US citizens.

Too easy for China to sponsor and send over people to apply for and gain US citizenship and still be loyal to China.

Let's stretch that to 1-2 generations of US citizens.

Laying aside momentarily the landmine of ethnic characterizations of the sort that led to the WW2 Japanese internment in the US, ancestry is very complicated, especially for Chinese people. What is a Chinese citizen? Going back generations, would we count citizens of pre-PRC China? For example, many Taiwanese who not PRC-nationals and who are fiercely anti-PRC might be labeled as Chinese descendants.

If there are specific interactions with the PRC and its military that are problematic, why not structure t

Re:

[cayenne8]

Laying aside momentarily the landmine of ethnic characterizations of the sort that led to the WW2 Japanese internment in the US, ancestry is very complicated, especially for Chinese people. What is a Chinese citizen? Going back generations, would we count citizens of pre-PRC China? For example, many Taiwanese who not PRC-nationals and who are fiercely anti-PRC might be labeled as Chinese descendants.

If there are specific interactions with the PRC and its military that are problematic, why not structure th

Re: Good luck

[frogg3r]

Sounds like the spanish inquisition. Amerikkka is doomed just like the spanish lolol

How about Freedom, Due Process and all that?

[Great_Geek]

So, in these 3 lines, how many violations of Freedom, Due Process, and all those other Constitutional rights?

Oh yes, I forgot, those are rights only for WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant), and don't apply to Blacks and Yellow-skin, Muslims, Jews, etc.

Re:

[opps sorry my bad]

I believe our leaders (McConnell, Pelosi, etc) are more interested in Chinese money that they are in representing the American people. I'm not a Bernie guy, but, didn't he say something like that during his campaign? If so, he wasn't wrong.

“American” companies

[optikos]

As if anyone is loyal to their nation anymore. Same with “British” companies or “German” companies. Perhaps “Japanese” companies still love their headquarters' nation as a matter of self-preservation or of national pride. But nearly everyone else is merely making their next boat payment by prostituting themselves to the highest bidder. This is how civilizations die, when no one loves their own civilization anymore, but instead squanders it as sell-outs.

Re:

[whitroth]

Oh, you mean like "American" companies such as Apple (how much of them is located in Ireland, and what did they pay in US taxes?).

Ass. The ultrawealthy are their own nation-states, and they care about anything other than the game token "who's richer?".

Re: “American” companies

[frogg3r]

Well to be fair, america is just a neo-colony

sour grapes

[snowshovelboy]

"How dare these people take government subsidies without giving anything back to the public domain! That was my idea!"

Re: sour grapes

[frogg3r]

The government subsidies exorbitant privilege came from the world, not the american taxpayer as do most phd stem graduates from american universities. Labor > capital

Re:

[snowshovelboy]

There is no two column accounting at the federal level in the USA. Income tax only exists to fight inflation, and as a sin tax for class mobility.

A duty to spy

[Hasaf]

There was a point in my life when I was working at a People Liberation Air Force college. I was having lunch with a general officer (don't be impressed, after all the PLA made a USO singer into a general). During this lunch, the general asked me a question that I consider to be more telling of China than my answer was illuminating for him.

He asked me why we allowed Chinese into our research facilities, he stressed that, “They are Chinese, you have to know they are spies.” I gave the usual ans

Re:

[Catvid-22]

Understandable. In open societies the default is to share, in closed societies, it's to withhold information. Now there are no truly open societies, and military and trade secrets complicate things even more. So clearly, you need more than money to get the know-how to build nukes (money could still be part of the "deal" of course).

Re: A duty to spy

[frogg3r]

If amerikkka was a closed society it would of already lost to ussr in the cold war. As the dumbing down of american education continues. Just watch american reality tv and network television lol

I've had similar conversations with grad students

[rapjr]

Many countries, Italy for example, have mandatory military service for men, and along with that comes swearing an oath to protect the mother country, and this is sometimes taken seriously, with debriefings when these students return home. My answer was that the USA is trying to set an example by being open and sharing information and knowledge. It is showing that it is possible to be open and working towards a free world while still protecting yourself. Secrets are overrated, particularly since you can't

"Pentagon's China"

[Bu11etmagnet]

The Pentagon now owns China? Does it include Taiwan?

Or is it a different China?