Florida Republicans continue to warn of the threat the Chinese government poses to the United States. Florida Rep. Mike Waltz (R) has issued a letter to Jennifer Granholm, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.
The letter was also directed to Arati Prabhakar, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In the letter, Waltz expresses his concern with the Thousand Talent Program.
In late September, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced legislative proposals that would counter the Communist Party of China and any influence it might have on academia, real estate, or cyber space.
Adding more pressure to the Biden administration, Waltz, a critic of the CCP, is warning against the CCP’s Thousand Talents Program, “highlighting Republican efforts to prevent further Chinese exploitation of American research and technology sectors” according to a press release from the Florida Republican.
Joining him in issuing the letter are Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas (R), the Ranking Member of the Science, Space and Technology Committee (STT), and nine Republican Committee Members.
In a statement, Waltz expressed that “the Chinese Communist Party has been stealing our research and technology for decades through its foreign talents program and it’s critical to our national security that we put an immediate stop to their espionage efforts.”
“Republicans on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee specifically crafted policies to prohibit China’s recruitment programs and the Biden Administration must be transparent in its implementation of these policies,” Waltz added.
A report published by Strider Technologies Inc. indicated that “at least 162 scientists formerly employed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico had returned to China to support the CCP in various domestic and military research and development programs.”
The press release from Waltz goes on to explain that the “letter emphasizes longstanding concerns with malign foreign talent programs, highlights SST legislative efforts included in the NSF for the Future Act and the Chips and Science Act to prohibit these programs in federal research, and requests information on the implementation of this prohibition to prevent our adversaries from exploiting US federally funded research.”
