**EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Pentagon Researchers Later Joined China’s Military — Including Its Nuclear Weapons Complex** White House correspondent and Bannon’s War Room co-host Natalie Winters dropped a major exclusive today: she identified dozens of researchers who worked on U.S. taxpayer-funded Pentagon defense projects or inside American weapons labs — then later went to work for China’s military, including the China Academy of Engineering Physics (the heart of China’s nuclear-weapons complex) and multiple U.S.-blacklisted military universities. This is not normal academic exchange. American taxpayers paid for the research. The Chinese military collected the talent and the know-how. ### The Core Pattern These researchers conducted work at top U.S. universities (University of Illinois, Stanford, MIT, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Northwestern, University of Michigan, and others) under funding from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, DARPA, and related programs. The topics were highly sensitive: explosives, shock waves, energetic materials, radar, underwater sensors, laser mapping, nanothermites, battlefield communications under jamming, chemical/biological threat detection, influence operations, and more. They later moved into China’s nuclear weapons complex, blacklisted “Seven Sons” military universities (Beihang, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics), or projects tied to the Central Military Commission. ### Key Cases from Winters’ Report **Nuclear & High Explosives** - **Yanqiang Yang**: 2000–04 at University of Illinois on three U.S. Army and Air Force projects worth $1.276 million combined, including explosives research. In 2026 he published new work on the powerful HMX explosive from a lab inside the China Academy of Engineering Physics. - **Xianxu Zheng**: 2012 high-speed shock research at Illinois funded by the Army, Air Force, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and a U.S. nuclear-stockpile program. Today he is a deputy director inside the China Academy of Engineering Physics, working on RDX-based explosives and underwater explosions. - **Tingting Zhou**: 2009–18 Navy-supported research on explosive sensitivity and detonation. By 2016 she was already publishing on the military explosive PBX-9501 with a China Academy of Engineering Physics ammunition center. She now works inside China’s nuclear-weapons complex. - **Yiying Zhao**: 2006–07 Navy and Air Force optical-device research at University of Michigan. Joined the Materials Institute of the China Academy of Engineering Physics in 2015. Her bio lists leadership on a military-civil fusion radiation-detector project and a 19.8-million-yuan tritium project; it also notes strategic military, space, and deep-sea uses for isotope batteries. - **Duanwei He**: Multiple positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory (including an Outstanding Innovation Award from Los Alamos and the Department of Energy). A Chinese defense patent in his name for an “Ultra-Thick Penetrating-Projectile Warhead” was filed in 2007 and granted in 2012. He now works at a joint institute connected to the China Academy of Engineering Physics. - **Guowei He**: Visiting staff at Los Alamos 1997–2000. A Chinese Academy of Sciences profile credits his team with the first time-accurate computer simulation of turbulent noise from a standard submarine model. **Aerospace, Propulsion & Radar** - **Yue Jiang**: 2020–22 at Stanford leading Navy-backed research on aluminum combustion and nanothermites. Beihang University was blacklisted in March 2023; Jiang joined its rocket-propulsion department in September 2023. He now works on rocket propellants, metal fuels, and energetic materials while teaching related courses. - **Jiaheng Zhang**: 2013–16 Navy and Defense Threat Reduction Agency explosives research. Joined Harbin Institute of Technology in 2017 (blacklisted in 2020 for military ties and missile-technology acquisition). Later published on hypergolic fuels. - **Huikai Xie**: Summers at the Air Force Research Laboratory, a Pentagon advanced-research award, and later co-led a $785,000 Navy laser-mapping project. Moved to Beijing Institute of Technology (blacklisted December 2020), led a Chinese military technology commission project on 3D optical imaging, and became a research-center chief scientist. - **Zhe Geng**: 2012–19 two Air Force projects on advanced radar, moving-target detection, and radar networks. Joined Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2019; later worked on Chinese moving-target detection and radar jamming. - **Jinling Gao**: 2017–22 two U.S. Army projects at Purdue on protective textiles and damage detection. Joined Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2022; bio lists a protective-structure project for a Chinese naval equipment institute and leadership of a 2022–24 Central Military Commission high-performance woven-materials project. - **Bo Zhou**: 2018–21 $7.5 million Navy project at Virginia Tech on battlefield communications, connected military devices, and operations under jamming or cyberattack. Joined Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in August 2021; one month later began a spectrum-technology project with a Chinese aerospace-defense research institute. - **Xiaowen Shan**: 1991–98 at Los Alamos (postdoc then permanent staff), later visiting fellowship at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Became aerodynamics chief at a research center of China’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer, then head of an intelligent-aviation research center. A 2022 report said the center developed a vertical-takeoff-and-landing drone with both civil and military applications. **Other Sensitive Areas** - **Haitao Xu**: Core member of a $6 million Pentagon project at Northwestern aimed at uncovering sophisticated hackers inside major computer networks. His Zhejiang University biography states he now participates in a major science project for China’s Central Military Commission. - **Yikun Ban** and **Ruijie Wang**: Both worked 2021–25 on the same $5.81 million Pentagon “Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking” program focused on detecting organized influence operations, ideological shifts, polarization, and radicalization. Both later joined blacklisted Beihang University and now work on advanced AI, autonomous systems, and machine decision-making. - **Yuzhe Liu**: Navy Young Investigator award; Stanford work on wearable sensors for head impacts and brain injuries. Joined Beihang in 2023. Lab now develops AI wearables and brain-injury models for “defense scenarios,” including a high-performance helmet and head-protection technology platform, with Chinese science and technology commission support. - **Shiyi Chen**: Rose from postdoc to group director and deputy research-center director at Los Alamos (1987–99). Returned to China in 2005; later directed a Peking University lab that co-hosted a detonation conference with a Chinese military lab specializing in hypersonic engines. A 2022 report quoted the lab as having participated in developing “national strategic equipment and hypersonic wind tunnels.” Additional researchers moved into Beijing Institute of Technology (repeatedly blacklisted) working on photonics, rapid chemical/biological threat identification, targeted electrical brain stimulation, and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces. ### What This Means U.S. taxpayers funded research on explosives, propellants, nuclear-related materials, radar jamming, underwater detection, battlefield networks, influence operations, and brain interfaces. The same people then entered China’s nuclear-weapons complex, blacklisted military universities, or Central Military Commission projects. The China Academy of Engineering Physics has long been under U.S. export restrictions precisely because it designs, develops, and maintains China’s nuclear weapons. This is the predictable result of decades of open research systems, loose visa policies, and insufficient security screening on sensitive defense-related work. The pipeline runs one way: American funding and training, Chinese military gain. Winters’ list is only a snapshot. Similar problems have already been documented in broader congressional investigations of Department of Energy collaborations with Chinese military-linked entities. The real questions remain: Why were these sensitive projects not subject to stricter citizenship and security-clearance requirements? Why do blacklisted institutions continue to absorb researchers trained on U.S. defense dollars? This is the reality. America First requires shutting down this one-way transfer of talent and technology. (Source: Natalie Winters’ exclusive X thread, August 18, 2026) Follow me find more👇 @helengmaga @helen_maga99