TAIPEI (Taiwan News)   The Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked eight Chinese naval vessels around Taiwan between 6 a.m. on Sunday (Sept. 22) and 6 a.m. on Monday.

In response, Taiwan sent aircraft and naval ships and deployed coastal-based missile systems to monitor the People's Liberation Army (PLA) activity, according to the MND. No PLA aircraft were tracked in the nation's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

So far this month, Taiwan has tracked 321 Chinese military aircraft and 180 ships.

The House Select Committee on China Competition, together with the Education and Workforce Committee, found some 9,000 joint research publications that were funded either through the Department of Defense (DOD) or the Intelligence Community (IC) published by co-authors with ties to China's "defense and security apparatus," including entities that are on a Commerce Department blacklist.

"The purpose of that research funding is to generate advancements that will eventually become applied warfighting and intelligence capabilities to protect America against adversarial nations," a summary of the report states. "Yet the research that the DOD and the IC are funding is providing back-door access to the very foreign adversary nation whose aggression these capabilities are necessary to protect against."

More than 2,000 DOD-funded papers included Chinese co-authors who were directly affiliated with China's defense research and industrial base, according to the report.

Under the guise of academic cooperation, the committees say China has orchestrated a campaign to pair with prestigious U.S. universities to transfer U.S. technologies and expertise back to China and circumvent government blackists.

In six case studies, covering research institutions including Carnegie Institution's Earth & Planets Laboratory, UCLA and U.C. Berkeley, lawmakers found Chinese researchers who collaborated with U.S. academia and took knowledge they learned back home to help China "achieve advancements in fourth-generation nuclear weapons technology, artificial intelligence, advanced lasers, graphene semiconductors, and robotics."

We uncovered significant failures in the reporting of foreign funding by UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech under section 117 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), despite section 117 being law for over 30 years. Enforcement of foreign gift and contract reporting requirements by the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been an abject failure. And the Biden-Harris Department of Education has failed to open a single enforcement action under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act in the last four years, despite widespread evidence of lack of reporting. These undisclosed foreign gifts likely hundreds of millions, if not billions in total gives PRC entities troubling influence without transparency and contribute to building the research relationships that pose risks to U.S. national security.

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B. Foreign Gift and Contract Reporting Under HEA

1. Trump Administration Response

The Trump administration initiated and carried out multiple compliance
investigations of IHEs to help ensure the integrity of foreign gift and contract
reporting.407 These investigations by the Trump administration discovered $6.5
billion in previously undisclosed gifts and contributions provided to so-called
"elite" colleges from countries that pose serious national security threats.408
The investigations found many schools failed to disclose more than half of
foreign gifts and contracts they received. Consistent with the Trump
administration's findings, a 2019 U.S. Senate staff report found that up to 70
percent of institutions reviewed failed to comply with section 117 and those that
do comply often underreport.409

These findings showed widespread lack of compliance even though the
reporting requirements of section 117 had been in place for over 30 years.
In summary, under the Trump administration, the Department took many
steps to increase transparency and combat foreign influence through sustained
and focused enforcement of section 117. The Department opened over a dozen
section 117 investigations, issued detailed reporting guidance, modernized the
Department's online portal to make compliance easier,410 and required the names
of foreign sources to be listed.411

2. Biden-Harris Administration Response

In a stark contrast with the Trump administration, the Biden-Harris
administration appears unconcerned about foreign gifts and influence. This
administration is characterized by a glaring lack of transparency and blatant
ignoring of foreign gifts and contracts. The lack of announcements by Secretary
Cardona or other senior Department officers of any newly-initiated compliance
investigations speaks volumes.412 Further, when asked repeatedly in May 2023 at
a hearing of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development
whether the Biden-Harris administration had opened any new section 117
investigations, then-Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) Chief Operating Officer
Richard Cordray failed to say yes or no. 413 Instead, Mr. Cordray obfuscated,
contending that he could not speak to the details of current investigations.414 A
review of the Department's website on September 20, 2024, shows that no new
compliance investigations were opened during the Biden-Harris administration.415
Moreover, on December 27, 2022, the Biden-Harris administration announced
it would transfer responsibilities for administering section 117 away from the
Office of General Counsel and to FSA.416 This move was and remains ill-advised,
given the Office of General Counsel's expertise and recent history of conducting
section 117 investigations. 417 Additionally, FSA was embroiled in many legal,
technical, and other challenges demanding its attention, such as the....

 Date    
6 to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) Tuesday to Wednesday, Sep. 24-25

  PLA activities
2 PLA aircraft and 6 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 2 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's eastern ADIZ. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities.

China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 44 years on Wednesday, a show of force set to fuel concerns in the US and among its neighbours.

The test, Beijing's first major missile launch since twin hypersonic weapons tests in the summer of 2021, comes as the People's Liberation Army is conducting intensive air and naval drills around the region and ahead of a call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden expected in the coming weeks.

The ICBM carrying a dummy warhead was launched into international waters at 8.44am, China's defence ministry said, adding that it was a "routine arrangement in our annual training plan" in line with international law and not directed against any country or target.

But observers interpreted the launch as a political message, saying it could heighten concerns in the US about Beijing's modernisation of its nuclear weapons.

Analysts said the Rocket Force, the PLA arm in charge of conventional and nuclear missile operations, uses ranges in Xinjiang or the Bohai Sea as target areas in almost all its tests.

"It is very rare for them to use a range other than these two as an ICBM firing range, the last time being in 1980," said Hsu Yen-chi, a researcher at the Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies think-tank in Taipei.

Beijing did not specify which missile it tested on Wednesday or the launch location. But four security officials in Asia said the launch came out of Hainan, southern China, and was assessed to be a road-mobile ICBM such as the Dongfeng-41.

"It doesn't seem to have been launched from a [Rocket Force] base or the Wenchang Space Launch centre. Most likely, it was launched from a coastal area," said Duan Dang, a maritime security analyst based in Vietnam.

China, Japan, the Philippines, the US and French Polynesia published navigational warnings of potential space debris in several areas in the South China Sea, the Luzon Strait, the Philippine Sea and waters in the south Pacific between Tokelau and Tahiti, indicating that Beijing had notified some countries.

However, it only informed them of a "space flight" event and did not mention a planned ICBM test, the officials said.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)   China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, stirring security concerns in the region already tense over Beijing's territorial claims and rivalry with the U.S.

The ICBM carried a dummy warhead and fell into a designated area of the sea, the Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to social media.

The launch by the People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and was not directed against any country or target, according to the statement.

It is unclear how often China conducts tests over such a distance. In 1980, China launched an ICBM into the South Pacific.

A map published in Chinese newspapers at the time showed the target area as roughly a circle in the center of a ring formed by the Solomon Islands, Nauru, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, western Samoa, Fiji and the New Hebrides.

The U.S. and non-governmental organizations have said China has been building up its missile silos, but it's unclear how many missiles and nuclear warheads it has added to its arsenal.

The People's Liberation Army, which functions as the ruling Communist Party's military wing, runs China's space program, which has established an orbital station and has ambitions to set up a Moon base and land a spacecraft on Mars.

Rocketry has long been part of China's development into a major global power, spurring nationalism and growth that has made China the world's second-largest economy.

Tests of China's intercontinental ballistic missiles into international waters are rare. Experts and a historical survey of China's program by the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative suggest the last occurred in May 1980. That test saw China launch its DF-5 missile into the South Pacific.

China typically launches missiles toward its western deserts from its east coast, said James Acton, the co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The fact that China launched a test that splashed down in international waters was unusual, but mirrors testing that the United States does for its own ballistic missile fleet.

"When they haven't done something for 44 years and then they do it, that's significant," Acton told The Associated Press. "It's China's way of telling us, 'Like you, we're not ashamed we have nuclear weapons and we're going to behave like a great nuclear power.'"

The launch came amid the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York. China is one of five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N.'s Security Council and has sought to gain influence over its key departments involving human rights and that align with its authoritarian system.

"We're entering a new age. We're entering an age where the U.S. and China are engulfed in what feel like an arms race," said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the U.S.

"The Chinese government always prioritized diplomatic issues over operational readiness. It's just a different China. It's a China that does not feel constrained," he said.

"There's a renewed emphasis on assuring themselves these systems work and demonstrating to others they work," Lewis added.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high over Taiwan, and with the Philippines, where the U.S. Army has deployed its new mid-range missile system, known as Typhon, to Northern Luzon. On Wednesday, two Filipino officials said the U.S. and the Philippines have agreed to keep the system there indefinitely to deter China.

"I don't know what's the plan, but if I were to be followed, if I were given the choice, I would like to have the Typhon here in the Philippines forever because we need it for our defense," said Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the head of the Philippines' military.

China launched separate sets of Earth-observation and "Internet of Things" satellites into orbit on Friday (Sept. 20) on two different missions.

The action began at 12:11 a.m EDT (0411 GMT, or 12:11 p.m. Beijing time) on Friday, when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket's payload fairing as it climbed into cloudy skies above the spaceport.

Aboard were six remote-sensing satellites for Changguang Satellite Technology (CGST), a commercial spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Jilin-1 Kuanfu (wideband) 02B satellites numbers 1-6 add to CGST's Jilin-1 commercial remote-sensing constellation, which is planned to consist of 300 satellites when completed, and provide high-resolution imagery. The company was founded in 2014 and has already launched more than 100 satellites.

China's second launch of the day took place just under six hours later. A Kuaizhou 1A solid rocket launched  at 5:43 a.m. EDT (0943 GMT, or 5:43 p.m. Beijing time) from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country's southwest, according to Expace, the commercial launch provider affiliated with the state-owned defense giant CASIC.

Aboard were four Tianqi satellites, numbered 29-32, for Guodian Gaoke, a Chinese commercial satellite operator. The satellites provide low-bandwidth communication to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices in remote or hard-to-reach locations.

The rocket was sponsored by the children's nutrition brand Inne, according to Expace. The launches were China's 42nd and 43rd of the year.