Pentagon Gives Harvard, NYU and 28 Other Universities Two Weeks to Explain Their Ties to China

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A New Deadline for America's Top Universities

The Pentagon, now officially called the Department of War, ordered 30 American universities on Monday to review their financial and research relationships with foreign institutions or risk losing access to federal research funding. The list includes some of the country's most prestigious schools: Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, NYU and the University of California, Berkeley, among others.

The universities have until August 31 to report their findings to the War Department. That gives them roughly two weeks to complete a task that, for institutions with decades-old international partnerships, is far from simple.

"The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security," said Emil Michael, the Pentagon's Under Secretary for Research and Engineering, in the announcement. He added that universities receiving taxpayer funding must meet strict research-security standards to remain eligible for future federal support.

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What the Universities Must Do

Each of the 30 institutions must identify any collaborations with entities on a Pentagon watchlist and determine whether those partnerships may have exposed sensitive or export-controlled research. The department also wants schools to examine ties to organizations connected to former Confucius Institutes, the Chinese-government-linked cultural centers that were widespread on U.S. campuses until recent years.

If a university finds a problematic relationship, it must propose a mitigation plan. In serious cases, that could mean ending the partnership altogether. Dr. Joseph Jewell, the Pentagon's Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology, stressed that universities are essential partners in Defense Department research, and that safeguarding those investments from foreign exploitation is now a priority.

The Pentagon has not publicly named all 30 institutions, though several, including Harvard and NYU, have been reported by multiple outlets. The department also did not disclose how many of the flagged partnerships specifically involve China, as opposed to Russia or Iran.

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The Blacklist Behind the Audit: Section 1286

The order draws on a mechanism Congress created years ago but which has taken on new force under the current administration. Section 1286 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to maintain an annual list of foreign academic and research institutions considered a national security risk. The current list names 130 institutions across China, Russia and Iran.

Earlier this year, the list grew to include not just military-linked schools but two of China's most prestigious civilian universities, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, along with Shandong University. Until now, the list had mostly focused on China's "Seven Sons of National Defence," a group of elite universities that funnel graduates directly into the Chinese military and state-run defense industry. Adding globally ranked civilian research universities marks a significant broadening of Washington's approach.

Starting this fiscal year, the Pentagon is barred from funding any research involving a partnership with a listed institution, whether through joint projects, shared equipment or the employment of researchers affiliated with those entities. Universities that fail to sever such ties risk losing access to Defense Department funding entirely.

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Harvard's China Problem

Among the 30 schools, Harvard faces the most scrutiny. A report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that Harvard researchers co-authored more than 140 publications with researchers from a group of Chinese universities tied to the People's Liberation Army. The same report noted that Harvard received more than 600 million dollars from Chinese sources under the federal foreign-gift disclosure system, more than any other American university.

That scale of financial and academic entanglement helps explain why Harvard has become a repeated target of congressional and now Pentagon scrutiny. Critics argue that elite universities, eager for funding and international prestige, have been slow to recognize how Beijing has used academic exchange as a channel for acquiring militarily useful research and technology.

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Part of a Broader Pattern

This audit does not stand alone. It fits into a wider, years-long effort in Washington to reduce the Chinese Communist Party's access to American research and technology, an effort that has gained momentum under President Trump's administration.

Confucius Institutes, once numbering close to 100 on U.S. campuses, have all but disappeared. According to a 2023 government watchdog report, the number fell to fewer than five within four years, driven largely by funding restrictions Congress imposed through successive defense authorization acts. Some schools, however, reportedly kept working with successor organizations tied to the same Chinese government bodies, which is part of why the Pentagon is now asking universities to disclose those relationships too.

The concern extends beyond university classrooms. Reporting published in July found that Chinese military researchers had used outputs from U.S. artificial intelligence models to help train their own defense systems, an example of how even indirect access to American innovation can end up strengthening the CCP's military capabilities. Lawmakers have also raised alarms over networks such as the one linked to tech financier Neville Roy Singham, accused of channeling hundreds of millions of dollars toward pro-CCP messaging efforts inside the United States.

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What Comes Next

The August 31 deadline is tight, and universities with decades of international research partnerships will need to move quickly to comply. Institutions that identify genuine risks and act decisively to end them are likely to keep their Pentagon funding. Those that drag their feet, or that continue quietly working with successor organizations to banned entities, could find themselves cut off from one of the largest sources of federal research money in the country.

Notably, the current National Defense Authorization Act downgraded China to the country's second-ranking security threat, behind other priorities. Yet this audit shows that, on research security specifically, the administration's posture toward Beijing remains firm, and it signals that Washington intends to keep closing the gaps that have allowed Chinese-linked institutions to benefit from American academic openness.

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Sources

1. Fox News – https://www.foxnews.com/politics/harvard-nyu-among-30-universities-hit-pentagon-foreign-tie-audit-deadline
2. Military Times – https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/17/pentagon-scrutinizes-foreign-research-ties-at-30-us-academic-institutions/
3. South China Morning Post – https://www.scmp.com/news/us/article/3364337/pentagon-orders-30-us-universities-scrutinise-ties-chinese-research-partners
4. Iran International – https://www.iranintl.com/en/202608170861
5. U.S. Department of War (offizielle Pressemitteilung) – https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4575019/department-of-war-orders-research-security-audits-at-30-academic-institutions/

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