Report links U.S. universities to Chinese surveillance labs
A report released Monday by Strategy Risks and the Human Rights Foundation alleges that elite U.S. universities including MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton co-authored roughly 3,000 papers since 2020 with Chinese AI labs Zhejiang Lab and SAIRI, which are tied to state surveillance contractor CETC. The study argues such collaborations advanced technologies like multi-object tracking and gait recognition that support Beijing’s repression of Uyghur Muslims, noting Chinese laws compel research entities to assist state security services and warning U.S.-funded work may be absorbed into systems of oppression.
📌 Key Facts
- Strategy Risks/HRF report released Dec. 8, 2025 names Zhejiang Lab and SAIRI as partners in ~3,000 co-authored papers with Western researchers since 2020
- Labs are tied to CETC, linked to Xinjiang’s surveillance platform used against Uyghur Muslims, which U.S. administrations have labeled a genocide
- Report cites development of multi-object tracking, gait recognition, and infrared detection and criticizes Western AI ethics institutes’ silence