President Trump
@POTUS,
Top American business leaders, including Apple’s Tim Cook
@tim_cook (who chairs the group),
@Microsoft’s Satya Nadella
@satyanadella,
@Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg,
@Nvidia’s Jensen Huang,
@Dell’s Michael Dell, and JPMorgan’s
@jpmorgan Jamie Dimon sit on an advisory board for a very prestigious Chinese university called
@Tsinghua_Uni Tsinghua University (often referred to as “China’s MIT”).
This board meets every year in Beijing, China. During the meeting, these business leaders give advice on business, technology, and education, which is extremely problematic given the fact that this university has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its military (the PLA), including labs that work on military AI and missile technology.
Why is this a major national security threat that you should be concerned about?
These CEOs currently control some of the most important technologies in the world, including super-advanced computer chips for AI, powerful graphics processors (GPUs), cloud computing systems that store massive amounts of data, and huge financial networks with millions of people’s personal banking and financial data.
By regularly meeting and talking with people who are deeply connected to China’s government and military, there’s a real risk that:
• Sensitive business plans, technology trends, and future strategies get shared (even unintentionally).
• China’s military gets smarter and faster about AI, drones, and high-tech weapons, enabling them to surpass the U.S. without having to steal our info outright.
• These American leaders might start making decisions that are good for their China business but bad for U.S. national security.
• Overall, it could weaken America’s tech advantage at a time when AI is becoming as important for war as it is for phones and apps.
It is extremely short sighted for the people running America’s most critical tech and finance companies to keep such close and regular contact with an institution in China that is tied at the hip with the CCP, America’s biggest strategic rival.
Allowing these American tech and finance CEOs to sit on the Board of Tsinghua University while many of them also sit on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) creates dangerous conflicts of interest and massive threats to US national security, which needs more scrutiny from US lawmakers.
These business leaders need to pick a lane. They cannot serve two masters at once. They are either loyal to the United States of America, or loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.
You cannot be loyal to both.
Cc:
@davidsacks47 @StephenM @SecWar @emilmichael @howardlutnick @SecScottBessent @SenatorBanks @SenTomCotton @SenRickScott