U.C. Berkeley Advised Chinese Government on Economic Decisions

U.C. Berkeley received millions of dollars from China to operate a big data research center that advised the Chinese government, as well as fund cutting-edge research into automated cars.

The Guizhou Berkeley Big Data Innovation Research Center (GBIC)—which was jointly operated by Berkeley, the Chinese province of Guizhou's local government, and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology—helped "Guizhou’s government in making economic decisions and improving public services," according to a 2016 Chinese government press release. Meanwhile, the taxpayer-funded California school also enlisted help from Chinese tech companies Baidu and Huawei to bolster its Berkeley DeepDrive automated car program. 

Berkeley's overseas ties have allowed China to access U.S. expertise in two critical sectors: big data and automated cars. The Chinese government considers big data analytics—the use of computers to analyze large data sets—as essential to strengthen both its domestic surveillance apparatus and military capabilities, according to a RAND report. The regime has long viewed the automated car sector as a key growth area, and its spies have stolen trade secrets from Tesla and other car companies to boost its own development. 

"The Chinese Communist Party is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and big data analytics to build the most sophisticated system of state surveillance and repression in the world," said Ian Easton, a senior director at the Project 2049 Institute. "Any American university or research lab collaborating with the Chinese Communist regime or its agents on technology research is directly collaborating with a hostile foreign power. The moral, ethical, and legal risks of such behavior should be obvious to any educated American."