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China United States News

Huawei Secretly Backs US Research, Awarding Millions in Prizes (yahoo.com) 41

Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant blacklisted by the US, is secretly funding cutting-edge research at American universities including Harvard through an independent Washington-based foundation. From a report: Huawei is the sole funder of a research competition that has awarded millions of dollars since its inception in 2022 and attracted hundreds of proposals from scientists around the world, including those at top US universities that have banned their researchers from working with the company, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

The competition is administered by the Optica Foundation, an arm of the nonprofit professional society Optica, whose members' research on light underpins technologies such as communications, biomedical diagnostics and lasers. The foundation "shall not be required to designate Huawei as the funding source or program sponsor" of the competition and "the existence and content of this Agreement and the relationship between the Parties shall also be considered Confidential Information," says a nonpublic document reviewed by Bloomberg. The findings reveal one strategy Shenzhen, China-based Huawei is using to remain at the forefront of funding international research despite a web of US restrictions imposed over the past several years in response to concerns that its technology could be used by Beijing as a spy tool.

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Huawei Secretly Backs US Research, Awarding Millions in Prizes

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  • Why weren't they spending that money on Chinese research instead? With the sanctions in place, it's not like they would benefit from research made in the US.
    • Why weren't they spending that money on Chinese research instead? With the sanctions in place, it's not like they would benefit from research made in the US.

      To use this as a front to get spies into our universities and steal our tech secrets.

      It's what they do and have done for ages....

      They advance by stealing...plain and simple.

  • by oumuamua ( 6173784 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @10:32AM (#64442386)
    Can't seem to get sufficient funding from sources in America. Wonder where all the money is going? It is also curious that the "Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party" makes no suggestions on what America can do to improve its competitiveness, it only suggests ways to impede China.
    • Can't seem to get sufficient funding from sources in America.

      But this is a source in America....

      Huawei gives money to a non-profit research foundation in America, and then that American foundation gives the freshly-laundered money to researchers to fund their work.

      The problem comes when the research results are shared back to Huawei by the foundation. Depending on the type of research, this could be a serious federal crime.

      Otherwise, it is legal.

      TLDR: Money in = Good. Research out = Bad.

    • Surely trying to increase America's competitiveness is has been on the agenda for the last 200 years? With occasional flavor changes like backstabbing King George, cozying up to England, backstabbing Japan, cozying up to Japan, allying with the USSR, backstabbing the USSR, cozying up to Russia, backstabbing Russia, cozying up to China, backstabbing China.

  • on equal footing? If yes, then I do not see any harm on Huawei funding it.

    If it is available with priviledges for china, and strings attached to everyone else, then there is a problem.

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