[Ed. – The most troubling sentence in the piece: ‘The California university’s close relationship with the Chinese government and corporate elite is not unique.’]
U.C. Berkeley received millions of dollars from China to operate a big data research center that advised the Chinese government, as well as fund cutting-edge research into automated cars.
The Guizhou Berkeley Big Data Innovation Research Center (GBIC)—which was jointly operated by Berkeley, the Chinese province of Guizhou’s local government, and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology—helped “Guizhou’s government in making economic decisions and improving public services,” according to a 2016 Chinese government press release. Meanwhile, the taxpayer-funded California school also enlisted help from Chinese tech companies Baidu and Huawei to bolster its Berkeley DeepDrive automated car program.
Berkeley’s overseas ties have allowed China to access U.S. expertise in two critical sectors: big data and automated cars.
