Senate Energy chair Lee seeks answers on lab researchers using Chinese computers

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent letters to directors of Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Argonne National Laboratories on reports of researchers leveraging supercomputers from the Chinese military.

Lee, a proponent for examining vulnerabilities at national labs particularly concerning foreign nationals, published the letters Wednesday on the committee’s website. In each letter, he cited a report that analyzed pulled DOE-funded research from 2016 to 2024.

Lee said at the beginning of each letter, the research persisted despite the 2015 U.S. sanctions on China’s National Supercomputing Centers and their presence on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List “due to their ties to China’s military and strategic weapons programs.”

Lee included examples of studies from each of the labs where researchers collaborated with a Chinese institution. All three labs had a study that used the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, which is in the U.S. Entity List. 

In the Los Alamos study specifically, a researcher collaborated with Beihang University, which is one of the “seven sons of national defence” or a grouping of public universities affiliated with the Chinese military.

“The use of PRC [People’s Republic of China] supercomputers introduces cybersecurity risks, including potential interception or exfiltration of sensitive U.S. research data by Chinese state-backed actors,” Lee said in the letters.

Each of the three lab directors must answer the following questions by Apr. 5:

• Does the lab currently require researchers to disclose any use of foreign supercomputing resources, particularly any tied to PRC-based institutions or institutions on the U.S. Entity List?
• Has the lab conducted internal reviews to assess if federally funded research violated U.S. export control laws or any sanctions?
• What steps has the lab taken to prevent researchers from collaborating with PRC-based supercomputing centers or contributing to Chinese military advancements?
• Will the lab commit to implementing mandatory disclosure requirements for any foreign supercomputers?