Barrasso: Department of Energy Must Take the China Threat Seriously

“We can’t let our research and technology fall into the hands of China’s brutal dictatorship. The Department must dramatically increase its efforts to protect our research from our adversaries.”

Click here to watch Senator Barrasso’s opening remarks.

Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Well said Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding today’s very important hearing.

“Research into advanced computing is critical – critical to maintaining America’s economic growth, our national security, and our leadership in the world.

“The Department of Energy – through its network of 17 national labs – plays a very key role in all of those innovations.

“The Department has some of the most advanced computing systems in the world.

“In fact, the Department has the world’s two fastest supercomputers and a third supercomputer among the world’s top ten.

“These systems have pioneered advances in artificial intelligence and in quantum computing.

“These are two fields that the People’s Republic of China does seek to dominate.

“For this reason, China is watching nearly every move that our national labs make.

“Our labs are under constant surveillance by a branch of China’s intelligence network that focuses on science and technology.

“This branch alone consists of about one hundred thousand agents.

“Beginning under Chairman Mao, this intelligence network has supported the development of China’s nuclear weapons, its missile, and its satellite programs.

“And its mission remains the same today –  target foreign technologies useful to the Chinese Communist regime, and acquire them by any means possible.

“America’s open research environment is the envy of the world.

“It has fostered our greatest scientific achievements.

“Yet it is a rich target for China and other adversaries.

“As stated by the National Academy of Sciences, the integrity of research is based on the values of ‘objectivity, honesty, openness, fairness, accountability, and stewardship.’

“Contrast this with the view of China’s President Xi Jinping.

“He recently described science and technology development as a contest to be won.

“He stated, ‘The initiatives of innovation and development must be securely kept in our own hands.’

“And, ‘whoever holds the key to innovation makes an offensive move,’ he said, ‘in [this] chess game…and will be able to take the lead and win the advantages.’

“A 2022 report, titled ‘The Los Alamos Club,’ by Strider Technologies is telling and I have a copy of a report here, mister chairman.

“It says between 1987 and 2021, the Chinese Communist Party targeted over 160 Chinese nationals working at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“Upon returning to China, these researchers helped them advance key military technologies using knowledge financed by us, by the American taxpayers.

“Today, thousands of non-U.S. resident, Chinese nationals still work at our national labs.

“And I believe the majority of these foreign nationals strive to further scientific innovation and collaborate in good faith.

“Yet make no mistake.

“They are beholden to an authoritarian regime.

“And the Chinese Communist Party is ruthless.

“Some of these Chinese nationals will see no other choice but to support the Chinese Communist Party through theft of American research and technology – because if they do not comply, their families back in China may be punished.

“Others will be tempted through bribery.

“Earlier this year, a Chinese national and former software engineer at Google was arrested for stealing on behalf of a Chinese firm, which was paying him secretly.

“The U.S. Justice Department has charged this individual with stealing software used to ‘orchestrate’ Google’s supercomputers at the ‘cutting edge of machine learning and A.I. technology.’

“In 2020, Congress required the Department of Energy to devise a study of counterintelligence efforts at our national labs.

“The Department hired MITRE – a government contractor – to conduct this study.

“In April of 2023, MITRE produced an unclassified report.

“Upon receiving the report, the Secretary of Energy then decided to classify it.

“The Secretary reassigned the Director of the Department’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence without explanation.

“I have asked the Department to declassify the MITRE report and for the Department to come clean with the American people.

“The U.S. Department of Energy has refused.

“One can draw many different conclusions from the Department’s stonewalling.

“The Department may simply want to hide its failures from the public. 

“Whatever the reason, it is clear that the Department of Energy and our national labs have failed to take the China threat seriously.

“Mr. Chairman, we can’t let our research and technology fall into the hands of China’s brutal dictatorship.

“The Department must dramatically increase its efforts to protect our research from our adversaries.

“And Congress must step in if the Department fails to do its job.

“Thank you again Mr. Chairman for calling this important hearing.

“I look forward to today’s testimony.”