U.S. Defense Department, NASA, Other Gov't Agencies Fund Research Leading to Over 1,000 Patents for Chinese Inventors

"It's alarming that U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly funded over 1,000 patents claimed by Chinese entities," worries Rep. Moolenaar.

The U.S. Defense Department, NASA, and other government agencies have funded research that led to more than 1,000 U.S. patents for China-based inventors since 2010, Reuters reported last week.

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Data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows these patents were awarded in sensitive fields like biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular chemistry and polymers, chemical engineering, medical technology, and semiconductors.

The patent agency granted 1,020 patents between 2010 and 2024 that had been funded at least in part by the U.S. government and involved at least one China-residing inventor.

The patents included 197 in pharmaceuticals and 154 in biotechnology.

“Funding from various U.S. government agencies supported the research, leading to 92 patents through Pentagon funding, 175 from Department of Energy money, and four from NASA financial support,” the Reuters report details.

“Funding from the Department of Health and Human Services yielded 356 such patents, the most of any agency.”

China has recently surpassed the U.S. to become the “world’s leading filer of patent applications.”

Republican Representative John Moolenaar (MI), the House’s select committee on China’s chairman, said, “It’s alarming that U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly funded over 1,000 patents claimed by Chinese entities, with the Department of Defense accounting for nearly 100 of these patents.”

You can read the full Reuters report here.

Various U.S. agencies have acknowledged China’s involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic, raising questions about the potential involvement of these patents in the worldwide health scare.

In February 2023, the U.S. Energy Department concluded that the COVID pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has likewise confirmed that the COVID pandemic was probably the result of a lab accident in Wuhan.

Moreover, Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, Principal Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), admitted in May that his agency did fund risky gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at WIV before the outbreak.

NIH grants were funneled to Wuhan through EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., a U.S.-based nonprofit.

EcoHealth has since been blocked from receiving taxpayer funds, following recommendations from the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

But now, it’s been revealed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been spending millions of American taxdollars to fund gain-of-function experiments on dangerous bird flu (avian influenza) viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists.

Scientists like Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, are worried a bird flu pandemic is currently “unfolding in slow motion.”

Meanwhile, China spends hundreds of millions of dollars to influence U.S. politics, primarily through lobbying, control of Chinese-language media, and sophisticated disinformation campaigns, according to an October 2022 report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The report emphasized how the FBI has noted a sevenfold increase in China-related investigations over four years and that 80% of economic espionage cases brought by the Justice Department involve China.

Beijing’s influence extends to U.S. local politics, targeting mayors, governors, and state legislators, while also increasing disinformation efforts online to sway elections and “sow chaos.”

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