{"id":2569408,"date":"2026-02-12T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T20:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congress-probes-nasa-for-funding-bilateral-collaboration-with-ccp\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T20:25:37","slug":"congress-probes-nasa-for-funding-bilateral-collaboration-with-ccp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congress-probes-nasa-for-funding-bilateral-collaboration-with-ccp\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress probes NASA for funding &#8216;bilateral collaboration&#8217; with CCP"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcongress-probes-nasa-for-funding-bilateral-collaboration-with-ccp%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2569408&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Congressional Republicans Chuck Grassley and John Moolenaar are pressing NASA over alleged funding of bilateral collaborations with Chinese entities through its research grants. The exclusive Washington Examiner report focuses on Stanford University professor Wendy Mao, who conducted federally funded work with the Center for High-Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR)\u2014an institution the Commerce Department says is affiliated with China\u2019s nuclear weapons program. Mao reportedly held a position at HPSTAR while carrying out NASA-funded research, prompting Grassley and Moolenaar to raise Wolf Amendment concerns, which bar NASA-funded collaboration with Chinese entities unless a FBI waiver is obtained. The lawmakers have asked the FBI to confirm whether Mao submitted a Wolf Amendment waiver and to provide data on waiver requests as 2015, outcomes, any FBI briefings to NASA, and how NASA tracks related referrals. The article notes HPSTAR\u2019s DoC designation and cites a Stanford Review report detailing Mao\u2019s ties to Chinese state research entities. It also references broader investigations finding extensive Chinese-linked collaboration in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-reverses-trumps-ban-on-using-aborted-fetal-tissue-for-taxpayer-funded-research\/\" title=\"Biden Admin Reverses Trump\u2019s Ban On Using Aborted Fetal Tissue For Taxpayer-Funded ...\">federally funded research<\/a> and other partnerships between U.S. universities and Chinese military-linked entities.Grassley and Moolenaar have demanded NASA records on Mao\u2019s work, waiver status, and overall agency compliance with the Wolf Amendment to ensure sensitive technology and taxpayer-funded knowledge aren\u2019t improperly shared.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Congress investigates NASA over funding &lsquo;bilateral collaboration&rsquo; with CCP<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2497286\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>EXCLUSIVE &mdash; <\/strong>Sen.<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/chuck-grassley\/\"> Chuck Grassley <\/a>(R-IA) and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) are pressing <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nasa\/\">NASA<\/a> on why the agency seemingly funded &ldquo;bilateral collaboration with Chinese entities&rdquo; through its research grants, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-02-12-CEG-JM-to-NASA-Wolf-Amendment.pdf\">according <\/a>to a letter obtained exclusively by the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The pair of congressmen honed in on the research of Stanford University professor Wendy Mao. Mao, according to a congressional analysis of academic publications, received federal support for 31 research projects she carried out alongside affiliates of the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, an entity that has appeared on the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bis.gov\/entity-list\">Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List<\/a> since 2020 and whose parent organization has been on the list since 1997.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4456567\/trump-says-not-aware-lutnick-2012-visit-epstein-island\/\">Trump says he &#8216;wasn&#8217;t aware&#8217; of Lutnick&#8217;s 2012 visit to Epstein&#8217;s island<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4456034\/josh-hawley-minnesota-attorney-general-keith-ellison-indicted-fraud-reports\/\">Hawley calls on Minnesota attorney general to be indicted over fraud reports: &#8216;You ought to be in jail&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/investigations\/4454655\/house-candidate-texas-accused-defrauding-donors-hispanic-activists\/\">Hispanic conservatives accuse House GOP hopeful of defrauding donors and activists<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The list, published by the Department of Commerce, catalogues entities believed to be involved &ldquo;in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States&rdquo; as well as those at risk of becoming adversarial to America. HPSTAR is affiliated with China&rsquo;s nuclear weapons program, according to the Commerce Department. Mao herself concurrently held a position at HPSTAR, which her father founded, while conducting federally funded research.<\/p>\n<p>Mao&rsquo;s ties to Chinese state research entities were <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/stanfordreview.org\/investigation-stanford-earth-sciences-chair-collaborates-with-chinas-nuclear-program\/\">documented <\/a>by the <em>Stanford Review<\/em> in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In one of Mao&rsquo;s publications, she collaborated with a researcher from the University of Science and Technology of China, a state-run institution, while receiving funding from NASA. Over the course of this research, Mao and her co-authors utilized the Chinese state university&rsquo;s supercomputing center as well as U.S. government facilities, which Grassley and Moolenaar said constitutes &ldquo;a direct or material reliance on PRC state infrastructure.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The publication lists only Stanford and Chinese co-authors yet explicitly acknowledges NASA funding, which &mdash; absent an FBI-certified congressional waiver &mdash; raises questions about potential violations of the Wolf Amendment,&rdquo; the lawmakers wrote of the research.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A 2019 aerial view of Stanford University in California is seen. Stanford is a private university that was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford. (JasonDoiy\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/researchpolicy.caltech.edu\/wolf-amendment-for-nasa-funding-and-work-with-jpl\">Wolf Amendment<\/a> is a federal law that bans bilateral cooperation between NASA-funded researchers and Chinese entities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Domestic researchers can obtain FBI waivers to circumvent the Wolf Amendment in certain circumstances.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Grassley and Moolenaar, in a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-02-12-CEG-JM-to-FBI-Wolf-Amendment.pdf\">second letter<\/a> obtained by the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, asked the FBI if Mao had submitted a Wolf Amendment waiver request for her work. The duo also sought information on the number of waiver requests filed since fiscal 2015, the outcomes and details of those requests, whether the FBI has briefed NASA on possible Wolf Amendment violations, and whether the FBI tracks the outcomes of Wolf Amendment-related referrals.<\/p>\n<p>China hawks have <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >long viewed academic collaboration<\/a> between American and Chinese researchers as a possible vector through which sensitive technology could find its way into the hands of the CCP.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, the House Select Committee on China, which is chaired by Moolenaar, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaselectcommittee.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/investigation-reveals-energy-department-collaborated-with-china-s-military-on-research\">released a report<\/a> alongside the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence identifying roughly 4,350 research papers funded or supported by federal grants that involved research relationships with Chinese entities, highlighting the widespread cooperation with Chinese entities in federally funded research.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the equation, a September 2025 <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>investigation <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3794942\/ccp-funded-research-flooded-academic-journals-trump-attacks\/\">found <\/a>that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ccp-funded-research-has-flooded-academic-journals\/\" title=\"... has ...\">top-tier academic journals<\/a> such as <em>Nature<\/em>, <em>Science<\/em>, the <em>New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>, and the <em>Lancet <\/em>had all published reams of research funded by the Chinese Communist Party that was subsequently used by domestic activists.<\/p>\n<p>Other <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>investigations have uncovered <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3427191\/dozens-of-american-universities-maintain-partnerships-with-chinese-military-linked-entities\/\">dozens of partnerships<\/a> between American universities and Chinese military-linked entities, the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/investigations\/3846649\/espionage-linked-chinese-company-embedded-us-research-labs\/\">presence of equipment<\/a> manufactured by an espionage-linked Chinese corporation at NIH-funded labs and major research installations, as well as the extent to which alumni of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, a CCP-controlled group, have <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3478895\/alumni-of-ccp-controlled-group-senior-positions-sensitive-industries\/\">secured top positions<\/a> within sensitive American industries.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3794942\/ccp-funded-research-flooded-academic-journals-trump-attacks\/\"><strong>CCP-FUNDED RESEARCH HAS FLOODED ACADEMIC JOURNALS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In connection with their investigation, Grassley and Moolenaar are requesting a trove of information from NASA. Among their requests are records related to Mao&rsquo;s work, information about whether NASA sought a Wolf Amendment waiver for the research, comprehensive data on the agency&rsquo;s research grants, and answers to how NASA has navigated the issues related to the Wolf Amendment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is well established that our university systems serve as soft targets in China&rsquo;s quest to acquire U.S. knowledge, research, and intellectual property, which is often funded by our taxpayers,&rdquo; the two lawmakers wrote in their letters to the FBI and NASA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers probe NASA grants for US-China research ties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2569409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-collage-7isdf8233-1770917515410-e1770927408147.jpg?1770909479&amp;w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[4402,11488,73696,22779],"class_list":["post-2569408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-congress","tag-nasa","tag-spacepolicy","tag-us-china"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-collage-7isdf8233-1770917515410-e1770927408147.jpg?1770909479&amp;w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2569408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2569412,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569408\/revisions\/2569412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2569409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2569408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2569408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2569408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}