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14 September 2024

MBZUAI Partners With US Tech, Collaborates With PLA Scientists

Cheryl Yu

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), a research university in Abu Dhabi, has ties to the united front system in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It also has access to US technologies that are currently subject to US export controls, such as NVIDIA A100 graphics processing units (GPUs). This raises the possibility that the university could function as a site for entities or individuals from the PRC to acquire or gain access to such technologies, thereby circumventing US export controls. Numerous PRC researchers are based at MBZUAI, many of whom come from People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or PLA-affiliated institutions. Meanwhile, US companies such as IBM and Meta, and academic institutions such as the University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley, have partnered with MBZUAI (China Brief, August 15). The PRC’s weaponization of international cooperation to bolster its defense capabilities suggests the potential scale of this problem. Ultimately, research done at MBZUAI and using US technology could later be used to enhance the PRC’s military capabilities.

International Collaboration to Boost Defense Modernization

The PRC has long advocated for international technology cooperation. In November 2023, at the inaugural “One Belt One Road” Technology Exchange Conference (“一带一路” 科技交流大会), the PRC proposed an “International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative (国际科技合作倡议).” This initiative advocates for building “a global community of science and technology (全球科技共同体)” and an “open and free ecosystem of international technology cooperation.” The aspiration is for “scientific and technological innovation personnel and resources to flow freely around the world” (Ministry of Science and Technology [MOST], November 7, 2023).

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