University of Michigan’s Partnership With CCP-Linked Shanghai School Brought Chinese Spies to Campus—And Dozens of US Universities Have Similar Arrangements
Elite schools like Columbia and Yale maintain joint institutes, dual-degrees, and exchange programs with Shanghai Jiao Tong University
(House Select Committee on the CCP)
Jessica Costescu
December 8, 2025
A string of national security breaches at the University of Michigan was linked to the school's research partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, an elite Chinese engineering institution with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. More than two dozen major U.S. universities hold similar connections to Shanghai Jiao Tong, creating vulnerabilities that Beijing may be gearing up to exploit, national security experts and China hawks told the Washington Free Beacon.
Since October 2024, the Department of Justice has charged at least 12 University of Michigan students, researchers, and recent graduates—all Chinese nationals—with national security-related offenses, a scale far outpacing any other U.S. school. Five of them were accused of taking photographs of military drills at Camp Grayling. They all belonged to an engineering partnership between Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong, which House Select Committee on China chair Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.) said "was helping the CCP modernize its military" and allegedly sits on a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) base.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/niversity-of-michigans-partnership-with-ccp-linked-shanghai-school-brought-chinese-spies-to-campus-and-dozens-of-us-universities-have-similar-arrangements/
