The University of Michigan is ending its partnership with a prominent Chinese university, just months after charges were brought against five former Chinese students related to suspicious activity near Camp Grayling in northern Michigan.

The university also felt pressure from Republican lawmakers concerned over China’s growing infiltration of U.S. businesses, technology, property, research institutions and national intelligence. In particular, Republican lawmakers recently uncovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal research funding has benefited China’s military and technological capabilities.

“My committee has put a spotlight on the fact that too many American universities are collaborating with CCP researchers on critical technologies including weapons, artificial intelligence, and nuclear physics,” U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, said in a statement. “The results of these collaborations could one day be turned against our country, and we cannot allow that to happen.”

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The University of Michigan has started the six-month process to officially end the partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai, terminating a two-decade academic collaboration between the two institutions.

The University of Michigan values academic international partnerships, but takes “matters of national security very seriously,” according to Santa Ono, president of the University of Michigan.

In November, Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter to Ono urging the institution to break ties with SJTU. Moolenaar also expressed his concerns that the partnership had been compromised after the federal court filing against the Chinese students.

Ono confirmed the decision Jan. 10 following discussions with U.S. congressional leadership and internal U-M stakeholders, The University Record reports.

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“International academic partnerships have deeply enriched our academic offerings and strengthened the global education of our students, and we will continue to pursue partnerships around the world as part of our academic mission,” Ono told The University Record. “As we do so, we must also prioritize our commitment to national security.”

University officials made the decision after a recent report from the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the House Select Committee on the CCP raised concerns over national security.

The decision follows an incident involving five Chinese nationals, who were UM students in the joint program when they were discovered outside of Camp Grayling in August 2023, CBS news reports.

They were confronted in the dark near the military base, where thousands of people had gathered for summer drills, but they were not arrested at the time. U.S. authorities charged the five Chinese nationals with lying and trying to cover their tracks in October 2024, but they were not taken into custody, CNN reports.

US authorities believe the five are no longer in the U.S. and have not appeared in court, CBS reports. They graduated in the spring of 2024 from the University of Michigan and were also traveling to other countries, including South Korea and Iceland, CNN reports.

They are accused of misleading investigators about the trip and conspiring to clear their phones of photos, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The FBI noted other incidents involving Chinese college students taking photos of vital defense sites in the United States.

U.S. lawmakers want stronger oversight of research partnerships between American universities and China in an effort to prevent the Communist power from espionage and accessing federally funded research for its own strategic purposes.

The lawmakers who authored the report contend that certain U.S.-China research partnerships have allowed China to “achieve technological breakthroughs,” including in areas that “the Chinese military could use against the U.S. military in the event of a conflict,” such as hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons and semiconductor technology, Inside Higher Ed reports.

In addition, Chinese-backed businesses in America with ties to the Chinese Communist Party not only threaten national security, but help the Chinese to develop critical technology to boost China’s military capabilities.

In Michigan, lawmakers are particularly concerned about electric vehicle battery manufacturers with ties to the Chinese Community Party receiving state incentives and corporate subsidies.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense blacklisted the Chinese battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. and others from federal contract. CATL is partnering with Ford on the BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall.

In another example, just ahead of Thanksgiving, Gotion High-tech announced a partnership with a Chinese university accused of cyber-attacks, The Midwesterner reported. Gotion also has been banned by the Department of Defense, due to parent company Gotion High-Tech’s partnerships with China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Gotion High-tech is the parent company of Gotion, Inc., which is behind an electric vehicle battery component plant in Mecosta County that’s expected to receive $715 million in taxpayer subsidies. Gotion, Inc. has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and the MOU between Gotion High-tech and Tsinghua University raises serious national security concerns.

Tsinghua University in Beijing — Xi Jinping’s alma mater — engages in a range of military research and serves China’s national security and defense. ASPI’s Defense Universities Tracker places Tsinghua University in the “very high” risk category due to “its high level of defense research and alleged involvement in cyber attacks,” according to Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

Michigan lawmakers have raised other concerns, including the plant’s proximity to the Camp Grayling National Guard base and a cyber security center at Ferris State University, to slave labor in the supply chain, to the potential impact on the Muskegon River watershed.