By Staff Reporter |

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is the latest in the state to drop its program with a Chinese university over national security concerns. 

House committees on the Chinese Community Party and Education and the Workforce released a report last month flagging security concerns within NAU’s partnership with a Chinese municipal public university, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications (CQUPT). 

The report outlined the main pathways by which China manipulates the American university system to benefit its military interests. 

“What once came through Confucius Institutes now flows through new channels — less visible but no less strategic,” stated the report. “The Select Committee is now actively investigating these additional CCP activities — including the China Scholarship Counsel and student visa pathways — which, combined with joint institutes, illustrate a coordinated strategy by the CCP: leverage American institutions to train PRC talent, absorb U.S. research, and convert that knowledge into military and economic advantage. Joint institutes are just one vector — the problem is systemic.” 

Rep. Eli Crane commended NAU for shutting down the program following the report’s publication. 

“I applaud Northern Arizona University’s leadership in reviewing its international partnerships and ensuring that its programs align with national security initiatives,” said Crane in a press release on Monday. “NAU’s actions reflect a responsible approach to protecting students, faculty, and the integrity of U.S. research and education. We greatly appreciate their commitment to these shared values, as well as all they do for Northern Arizona.”

The CQUPT program was a 3+1 dual-degree program in Electrical Engineering. 

Full withdrawal will occur within 90 days, per Crane’s press release. 

NAU’s program was one of over 50 university partnerships the congressional committees deemed “high-risk” for their involvement with universities guided by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) military and defense interests. The congressional committees disclose that the list is not all-inclusive and that more may exist. 

The University of Arizona (U of A) had two programs included in the congressional report that were deemed high risk: one with the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and the other with the Arizona College of Technology (ACT) at Hebei University of Technology (HUT). 

The HIT program is one of three joint programs that American universities launched with one of China’s Seven Sons of National Defense (SSND) universities.

Only universities selected by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to advance China’s military and defense research qualify as SSND. 

Although the report declared the HIT partnership to be active, U of A has stated it terminated its partnership in December 2023.

The committees also determined the University of Arizona’s Arizona College of Technology at Hebei University of Technology.

Last month, U of A faculty were advised that Chinese microcampuses would be closed following congressional advice on national security concerns with the partnerships. 

U of A issued a notice on its Research and Partnerships page last December that SSND posed “atypical security risks and concerns about misuse of research for military purposes” due to their being controlled by CCP’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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