Lee Roberts, chancellor of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that the school is ending its relationship with Fudan University in Shanghai.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of War (aka Department of Defense), Roberts states that the school routinely screens relationships that “may present legal, regulatory, research-security, or institutional risk.” In 2022, UNC had renewed its relationship with Fudan University because Fudan had not at that time been “identified on an applicable U.S. Government restricted-party list.”
Section 1286
Things changed after Fudan University was added to the Section 1286 list, a list of foreign entities that pose a national security threat. Legislation enacted in 2019 requires the Defense Department to maintain this list.
On July 23, 2026, the department issued a press release reporting that it had formally updated its Section 1286 list of “foreign institutions engaging in problematic activities” to include “130 academic and research institutions located in China, Russia and Iran. These institutions have been confirmed to engage in activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated. Such misappropriation enables adversarial government interference that directly threatens America’s national security and scientific integrity.”
Fudan University is among the newly listed institutions.
Roberts says that upon receiving an alert from its screening system on July 27, 2026, UNC reviewed its relationship with Fudan University, which consisted of “a study-abroad program for undergraduate students and was unrelated to research activities, including sensitive research, Department of War–funded research, or export-controlled research…. Out of an abundance of caution, UNC decided on August 12, 2026, to cancel the study-abroad program with Fudan University.”
Directive
Although the chancellor stresses the relevance of the school’s screening system, his letter also alludes to the fact that UNC was one of thirty American universities instructed by a War Department directive issued in August 2026 to audit their relationships with “foreign entities of concern.”
The Associated Press reported that if the schools failed to “complete a review and terminate any arrangements deemed problematic within the next two weeks,” they faced the prospect of losing federal funding. UNC probably did not need its screening system to tell it that the school had received an instruction from the Department of War.
In his letter to the department, Roberts also mentions two federally unfunded research projects with academic collaborators at two other Chinese universities. He says that these projects had been approved before the two schools were added to the 1286 list and are now being wrapped up. And then “UNC faculty will have no further collaborations with these institutions.”
