Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee has written to three US National Institute directors asking why they funded the research facility using a US-approved Chinese government supercomputer
A survey by the Daily Caller News Foundation, published March 20, found that the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy are funding 102 research projects using at least one of five licensed Chinese supercomputer centers, primarily through three US national laboratories. Lee sent it on Wednesday Enquiry letter We quote the DCNF findings to directors of Oak Ridge (ORNL), Los Alamos (LANL), and Argonne National Laboratories (ANL).
“I am writing to express serious concern about a recent report detailing how researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are involved in research collaborations that leverage PRC-based supercomputing resources. These activities are particularly concerning in light of their involvement in the containment of the intervention unit of the US Supercomputing Center (NSCCS) and the containment of the Chinese fiancée in 2015. Lee wrote to LANL Director Dr. Tom Mason.
“An analysis of the report on DOE-funded research from 2016 to 2024 highlights multiple instances where LANL researchers conducted research using PRC supercomputing resources, including NSCCs in Guangzhou and Tianjin,” added Lee.
US Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) will listen at the 2020 hearing of the Confirmed Judiciary Committee’s Confirmation Hearing of Supreme Court Judge Candidate Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
In June 2020, the US Department of Commerce approved China’s supercomputing centres in Beijing, the Great Wall, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin, citing their involvement in activities that threaten US national security, including China’s mass destruction program. (Related: Exclusive: Senate Doge Committee Chairman urges DOD to kill contracts with Chinese Intel-bound defense contractors)
Emphasizing the specific concerns of each letter, Lee wrote to ANL Director Dr. Paul Kerns, pointing to a 2022 research project entitled “The cone anomaly and elastic softening of body-centered cubic molybdenum at high pressure.”
This study included collaboration between the Center for Advanced Research in High Pressure Science and Technology and the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics at Sichuan University. According to the letter, the study used “high-pressure simulations” carried out on a licensed Chinese supercomputer in Guangzhou.
“By working with organizations listed in these entities and using authorized HPC resources, this project raises concerns about whether critical material research for aerospace and defense can inadvertently support limited PRC entities,” the letter states.
Prior to Lee’s investigation, spokesmen for ANL, LANL and ORNL told DCNF they did not use approved CCP supercomputers.
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