WASHINGTON (TND) — In this week's Waste of the Week, $20 million for U.S.-funded military research is going to institutions in China. Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, joined The National Desk Friday to discuss this topic.
More than 150 Chinese-born scientists who did U.S. taxpayer-funded military research at the fabled Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are now back home working in China, in some cases, helping develop weapons, according to a news release provided by Andrzejewski.
First reported by NBC News, a report titled "The Los Alamos Club” from Strider Technologies, “Since returning to China, Los Alamos alumni have helped the [People’s Republic of China] advance key military and dual-use technologies in areas such as hypersonics, deep-earth penetrating warheads, unmanned autonomous vehicles, jet engines and submarine noise reduction."
The report focuses on one scientist, in particular, who worked at Los Alamos for 18 years: Zhao Yusheng. The researcher reportedly collected about $20 million in taxpayer-funded research grants from the U.S. Energy Department.
We trained them in our labs, we funded them with our taxpayer-paid grants. Oftentimes, we gave them top security clearances so they had access to the crown jewels of our military technological secrets. And now they're back in China building the Chinese programs," Andrzejewski said Friday.
Andrzejewski and The National Desk's Jan Jeffcoat also dive into a conversation on the state of Iowa using millions in COVID-19 relief aid for their Field of Dreams stadium. Watch the video above for Andrzejewski's full interview.