December 18th, 2025: China Accused of Accessing Sensitive U.S. Nuclear Research & A European Ukraine Force
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It's Thursday, the 18th of December. And for those of you keeping score at home, we only have one week until Christmas. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, a new report outlines further Chinese regime efforts to acquire sensitive technology. Shocking. Lawmakers say China is quietly tapping into U.S.-funded research programs, potentially funneling sensitive nuclear technology straight to the Chinese military. I'll have the details. Later in the show, European leaders are discussing a multinational force for Ukraine after a ceasefire, if, well, if there is a ceasefire. And Germany's chancellor says Western troops might be empowered to push back Russian forces in the event of future aggression.
Plus, an MIT professor is murdered in his Massachusetts home. And now Israeli officials are examining intelligence that suggests Iran may be connected. And in today's Back of the Brief, the manhunt continues after the Brown University shooting, as authorities release new footage tied to a person of interest. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. A new report out of Washington says U.S. taxpayers may have unknowingly helped fund China's military modernization and nuclear programs. Now, do you get the sense that the stewardship of U.S. citizens' tax dollars might be lacking? Ah, but I digress. Anyway, that's the conclusion of a new congressional investigation that says Beijing has been quietly exploiting partnerships with American researchers, many of them funded by the Department of Energy, to gain access to sensitive nuclear-related and advanced technologies with clear military and national security applications.
Now, for years, U.S. officials have warned about Chinese espionage, cyber theft, and intellectual property theft. But this report points to something more uncomfortable. In some cases, China didn't have to steal anything. The door may already have been open. According to the report, investigators identified more than 4,000 academic papers published over the past year that involved collaboration between Department of Energy-funded scientists and Chinese researchers. Roughly half of those collaborations involved Chinese institutions tied directly to China's military or defense industrial base. and that's where the national security alarm bells start going off. The Department of Energy doesn't just fund basic science, of course.
It oversees 17 national laboratories and pours hundreds of millions of dollars into research, funding everything from nuclear energy and weapons stewardship to quantum computing, materials science, and advanced physics. These are not obscure academic fields. These are technologies that sit at the core of modern military power. Investigators found that U.S. federal funds flowed to research collaborations with Chinese state-owned laboratories and universities that work directly with the People's Liberation Army. Some of those institutions are even listed in a Pentagon database of Chinese military-linked companies operating in the U.S. Sounds like somebody hasn't been doing their due diligence. In other words, American taxpayers may have been funding research that directly benefited the military buildup of the U.S.
's primary strategic competitor. Of course... After learning just a few years back that the US had been funding Chinese labs involved in gain-of-function research that, in all likelihood, led to the COVID-19 pandemic, there should be no surprise that the US taxpayer is also paying to upgrade the Chinese military. The report also flagged collaborations with Chinese entities linked to cyber operations and human rights abuses, raising further concerns about whether the U.S.
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