What Are China's Military Universities Up To This Week?

The projects, partners, and publications of the Seven Sons of National Defense.

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What are China's military universities up to this week?

This week, I’ve tracked the activities of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense” universities across the web and documented their partnerships, publications, and new initiatives. These universities have deep ties to China’s military and defense sector, and some have even been implicated in economic espionage operations. The U.S. government has labeled them as high-risk institutions, and their students have been barred from studying in the United States since 2020.

Yet, despite these restrictions, the universities continue to pursue partnerships with companies and institutions worldwide. Understanding their activities is critical for policymakers, consultants, and businesses managing the reputational and security risks that come with affiliations to Chinese military-linked entities.

Keep reading to learn which university misappropriated Meta’s large language model for military purposes, which one had its partnership with a Swiss institute terminated, and which one performed an original play about autonomous underwater vehicles.