When cancer researcher Jiang Yang joined Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in 2019 after spending 15 years at leading U.S. universities, he maintained collaborations with some of his former colleagues. But all would be off-limits under a bill introduced in May, 2026 in the U.S. Congress.

The measure, called the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries (SIRA) Act, would prohibit U.S. scientists from using federal funding “to enter into, support, or carry out any research collaboration” with any Chinese scientist “associated with” Chinese entities on one of several U.S. government blacklists. The bill’s sweeping definition of collaboration includes co-authorship, sharing data, material transfers, and any joint supervision of students.

The blacklists are equally broad. They include any university, laboratory, or hospital considered part of the country’s “military-civilian fusion strategy” to boost the country’s standing as a science and technology superpower. Yang’s employer, a top cancer research center in Guangzhou, China, would presumably fall under the ban.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/lawmakers-propose-banning-all-u-s-chinese-research-collaborations

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