Trump's Actions Threaten US in Tech Competition with China

From significantly cutting federal scientific research funds, threatening to freeze university funds under the pretext of "combating campus anti - Semitism", to unjustly revoking international students' visas, US President Trump's three - pronged approach has put the scientific research community on edge. According to a report on the 18th, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, warned that if Trump continues such practices, the US may lose the technological innovation competition with China.

The report said that Schmidt criticized that the Trump administration is "wrongly attacking science" through the reduction of research funds. "If the government has issues with individual scientists or specific research, that's okay. But now it seems like a full - scale attack on American science as a whole."

In Schmidt's view, this "madness" will eventually end because it is "too stupid". However, even if Washington corrects its course, the damage has already been done. "I hope everyone understands that these damages are real," Schmidt said. "We are facing China, which is investing trillions of dollars in this area, while we are acting recklessly and not providing funds to those who are supposed to invent our future."

Schmidt made the above remarks at the "AI Biotechnology Summit" jointly hosted by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) and the non - partisan think tank "Special Competitive Studies Project" (SCSP). SCSP aims to advise the US government on how to "win" in the Sino - US technological war, and Schmidt is its founder.

Schmidt emphasized that the US's leading position in scientific innovation is based on a long - standing tripartite cooperation model among the government, universities, and capital. The government provides basic support for research with funds, universities conduct research and produce results, venture capitalists commercialize the research results, and the government provides market support. But the Trump administration's actions are now breaking this established pattern.

"If you think it sounds like I'm supporting the Democrats, let me remind you that the highly successful fracking technology in the US, which made the US independent in oil and gas and the largest exporter of oil and gas, also followed the same path," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said that he knows some tech talents who originally worked and lived in the US but are planning to move back to the UK due to the deterioration of the research environment after Trump took office. He also said that many US universities are in a "hiring freeze" state because school authorities are "very afraid of this government that seems to be deliberately withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from them".

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has tightened immigration policies, cut government research funds, reduced the employees and budgets of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and cracked down on universities' "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) - related programs and pro - Palestinian protest activities.

According to a report on the 17th, many scientists still working in US government agencies admitted that Trump's spending cuts have affected their work. At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), laboratories can't even buy basic supplies such as gloves, pipettes, paper towels, petri dishes, and reagents. During busy times, they have to borrow staff from other groups to complete sample analysis work.

Scientists working in other government agencies also said that they can no longer afford to publish papers, and they can't even guarantee the basic supplies for processing experimental samples. Some scientists at NOAA have been forced to suspend field expeditions because the contractors they have long - cooperated with were told to stop the cooperation.

The Trump administration has taken measures to revoke, freeze, or review federal funds for 7 top US universities, namely Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Cornell University. Another 19 universities have been informed that their federal funds may be cut, including for the reason of failing to protect students from "anti - Semitism".

The most notable cases are Columbia and Harvard. Previously, it was reported that after being threatened with the suspension of $400 million in federal funds by the Trump administration, Columbia University has accepted the "rectification" requirements. This includes agreeing to ban wearing masks on campus, authorizing 36 campus police officers to arrest students, and appointing a senior associate provost to oversee its Middle East, South Asia, and African studies departments and the Palestinian Studies Center.

Harvard has recently become the first university to "stand up against" the government. On the 14th of this month, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a statement that the "rectification" requirements put forward by the Trump administration exceed the federal government's authority, violate Harvard's rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution, and go beyond the legal authority granted to the government by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

After that, the US government announced that it would freeze Harvard's $2.2 billion multi - year appropriation and $60 million multi - year contract funds. If Harvard continues to "defy the order", another more than $6 billion in federal funds under review may also be "at risk". Trump also posted on social media on the 15th, threatening to deprive Harvard of its "tax - exempt status" and tax it as a "political entity".

Besides universities, Trump's "witch - hunt" has also affected many international students. According to US media statistics, since late March, the visas or identities of about 1,100 international students and recent graduates from more than 170 US universities have been revoked in the on - campus "Student and Exchange Visitor Program" (SEVIS). US media said that some of them expressed their objections, such as participating in pro - Palestinian demonstrations, but more lost their status for unknown reasons.

On the 18th, more than 100 affected international students jointly filed a lawsuit in the US federal court, demanding the restoration of their legal status and the halt of the government's implementation of this policy. The lawsuit states that these international students suddenly lost their legal status without any warning.