The War Department announcement that thirty universities have “fully mitigated” their relationships with “foreign entities of concern” — most notably Chinese academic institutions — is a welcome development. These “entities” appear on the latest update to the list mandated by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act to identify "foreign institutions engaging in problematic activities.”The department’s latest update of the list identified 130 such institutions “located in China, Russia and Iran" whose activities enable "adversarial government interference.”

Not surprisingly, the department's latest announcement has met some skepticism if not outright opposition from some of the thirty universities that have agreed to mitigation. Several have announced that they will not cut all ties with China; after all, “mitigated” is not the same as “terminated.”The universities’ reaction should come as no surprise. For years, American institutions of higher learning and their supporters have argued that cooperation with their foreign counterparts is critical to advancing cutting-edge research. As a 2025 letter from the Asian American Scholar Forum to the chairmen and ranking members of the Armed Services Committees put it, “critical to our research enterprise is our ability to attract and retain the best global talents, foster international collaborations, and reduce the chilling effect on the Asian American and broader research community.”

This has been especially true with respect to the longstanding debate over restricting the number of Chinese students attending U.S. universities — an issue over which the American public is evenly divided. In fact, the number of Chinese students attending American universities declined during the past decade from a peak of 370,000 in 2018 to 266,000 in the 2024-2025 academic year. But that is still a significant number. As Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, outlined in a recent letter to Secretary Pete Hegseth, many Chinese students receive their support—and can pay full tuition — from the China Scholarship Council, which targets “STEM disciplines aligned with China’s industrial policies and medium to long-term development plans [and is] a key channel for transferring human talent, intellectual capital, and technical expertise back to [China] in support of its national strategic objectives.”

Moreover, Moolenaar notes, the council requires sponsored students to submit regular reports to Chinese authorities "detailing their academic progress, laboratory work, research outputs and publications,” to return to China after competing their studies, and to serve in government afterward for at least two years. For these reasons, Moolenaar demands that the War Department “prohibit any researcher, graduate student, postdoctoral researcher or other research personnel receiving funding or financial support from the China Scholarship Council from participating" in research funded by the department.

This would no doubt result in a further decline in the number of Chinese students attending American institutions of higher learning. Those who oppose such restrictions go so far as to claim that “banning Chinese students would cast the strategic competition with China as a racially motivated action ... banning an entire group of citizens from Asia would not only light a match under our relations with China, it would also outrage several of our close allies around the region.”

But Moolenaar’s letter does not call for a ban on all Chinese students, nor is the argument for reducing their number racially motivated. On the contrary, there is much to be said for welcoming foreign researchers, whatever their race, to study in the U.S. and collaborate with, American university programs — especially those related to cutting-edge technologies.

As a member of the Congressionally mandated National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, I have met throughout the U.S. with leading researchers who have made breakthroughs on the most advanced biotechnology projects; many of them are non-white first-generation Americans. The U.S. must continue to attract the most talented foreign academics and researchers if it is to remain the world’s leading source of technological innovation. But it cannot open its doors to students who have direct links to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.

That would contribute to Beijing’s tireless effort to replace the U.S. as the world’s technological leader. Instead, as I suggested five years ago, the Pentagon should set aside funds to expand its scholarship programs for students who until now could not attend the university programs of their choice because they could not afford to pay for them and were displaced by Chinese students who could. In that way, not only would the War Department prevent Beijing’s exploitation of our intellectual resources, but by supporting an expanded pool of talented young Americans hoping to pursue careers in advanced technology, it also would further strengthen the nation’s intellectual and technological security.

Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was under secretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy under secretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.