Congressional panel urges University of Michigan to cut ties with Chinese institute

FIRST ON FOX: The House's China Select Committee is calling on the University of Michigan to cease its partnership with a Chinese institute that they claim is sending sensitive technological expertise back to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

"I urge you to conduct a comprehensive national security review of this partnership in light of the facts below," the letter, penned by committee Chair Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and obtained by Fox News Digital, read. 

"I strongly encourage you to shutter the partnership between U-M and Shanghai Jiao Tong and take the necessary steps to safeguard the integrity of federally funded research at U-M and carefully vet international students studying on U-M's campus."

A recent GOP-led report by the committee found "U.S.-PRC academic joint institutes as a core channel leveraged by the PRC government and its affiliated entities through which sensitive U.S. technologies and research know-how are transferred to the PRC's defense and research industrial base."

After the report came out, a number of other universities, including Georgia Tech and the University of Berkeley, dissolved their partnerships with Chinese institutes. Michigan kept its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong Institute.

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The letter says the institute plays a "critical role" in the CCP's military-civil fusion strategy. The university has been under the supervision of China's State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) since 2016, according to a select committee report from last year.