In a startling revelation, Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio disclosed that American taxpayers are inadvertently funding thousands of Chinese experiments with direct military applications. Serving as the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio’s revelations have sparked significant concern about U.S. financial aid potentially aiding the Chinese military.

Writing in The National Interest, Rubio highlighted a concerning report about the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarding $30 million in artificial intelligence research grants to a Chinese scientist at the Beijing Institute of Technology. This institute is known for developing next-generation weapons for the Communist Chinese Army.

Rubio’s concerns were further validated by new evidence from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The NCIS found that U.S. taxpayers had unknowingly funded these experiments. “Their findings note more than 5,000 instances of research collaboration between the DoD’s funding agencies and Chinese entities between 2019 and 2024,” Rubio wrote.

This information underscores the complexities and potential risks of international research collaborations, especially those involving nations with adversarial relationships with the U.S. Rubio, alongside Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton, has been at the forefront of efforts to confront Communist China, emphasizing the need for stringent oversight and regulation to prevent American resources from bolstering foreign military capabilities.

The implications of these findings are profound, raising questions about the efficacy of current oversight mechanisms and the potential need for policy reforms to safeguard national security interests.