US universities collaborate with Chinese AI labs linked to Uyghur surveillance
A report from Strategy Risks and the Human Rights Foundation alleges that leading US and UK universities collaborate with Chinese AI laboratories linked to surveillance and human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The report states that technologies developed through these collaborations, funded partly by US government grants, are used for mass surveillance of Uyghurs.
What happened
A report released by Strategy Risks and the Human Rights Foundation on 8 December 2025 disclosed that MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, and Berkeley collaborate with Chinese state-supported AI laboratories including Zhejiang Lab and Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.
Since 2020, these two Chinese AI institutions collaborated with Western researchers to publish approximately 3,000 research papers. These institutions are directly affiliated with China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, which was sanctioned by the US for involvement in building Xinjiang surveillance systems.
Technologies developed by these Chinese laboratories, including multi-target tracking, gait recognition, and infrared detection, progressed through collaboration with Western researchers and with partial US government funding support, but are deployed for large-scale surveillance in Xinjiang.
Reported impact
The report indicates that Chinese law requires all research institutions to support national security and intelligence work, so any collaboration with Chinese institutions may transfer Western technology directly into systems used to suppress ordinary citizens.
Over the past decade, China built a digital surveillance system in Xinjiang and over one million Uyghurs were subjected to mass detention, forced labour, and compulsory 're-education', with facial, voice, gait, and biometric data collected comprehensively.
Index analysis
The report's authors noted that the core issue is not traditional espionage but that Western academia treats laboratories bound to China's 'military-police-civilian integration' policy as ordinary academic partners.
AI ethics research centres at Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, and Berkeley remained largely silent on Chinese Communist Party's use of AI for suppression between 2020 and 2025, with only two organisations publicly condemning Beijing's actions while their home universities continued collaborating with Chinese laboratories.
Governance controls
The report recommended that the US and Western countries implement mandatory human rights due diligence for international academic collaboration, increase transparency of co-authored papers with foreign institutions, and restrict collaborative research with Chinese state laboratories involved in surveillance and defence to prevent sensitive technology transfer and enable human rights abuse.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.