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In a sweeping move to escalate the Trump administration’s scrutiny of China’s expanding global influence, the U.S. Department of Defense has issued an ultimatum to 30 American universities: complete a full audit of collaborative partnerships with Chinese academic and military-linked institutions within 14 days, or risk losing federal taxpayer funding. The Pentagon framed the mandate, announced Monday, as a critical step to safeguard U.S.-funded research from unauthorized exploitation and intellectual property theft.

“The Department of Defense has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, stated in an official news release. While the department did not publicly disclose the names of targeted institutions in the release, an anonymous U.S. official with knowledge of internal deliberations confirmed that top-tier institutions including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University are among those ordered to conduct the review. None of the named universities issued an immediate response to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

The new audit order builds on a move the Pentagon made just one month prior, when it released an updated list of 130 foreign organizations flagged for activities that raise the risk of misappropriating U.S. government-funded research and development. The overwhelming majority of institutions on the updated list are Chinese, including the University of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, though a small number of Iranian and Russian entities were also included.

Sarah Spreitzer, vice president of the American Council on Education (ACE), an organization representing U.S. college and university presidents, pushed back against the new mandate. Spreitzer noted that the initial version of the foreign entity list was developed during Trump’s first term with direct input from ACE, and that most member institutions have already cut ties with the flagged institutions over the past years. She raised sharp concerns that the new order implicates U.S. universities in wrongdoing without presenting concrete evidence, and warned that schools could be penalized for partnerships formed long before the list was first published. “We don’t appreciate the implication that we are not good partners on research security, given that we helped create this list, and given that we’ve always partnered with the federal government when there has been national security concerns,” Spreitzer said.

The audit order comes as part of the Trump administration’s broader, escalating campaign to counter Chinese influence across the Americas. In recent months, the administration has pushed back against Chinese ownership of port infrastructure at both ends of the Panama Canal, opposed Chinese-funded infrastructure projects linked to the Belt and Road Initiative in the region, and cracked down on Chinese investment in the U.S. telecommunications sector. The new mandate also adds to a string of federal investigations targeting Harvard University: the U.S. Department of Justice is already probing allegations that Chinese donors have funded scholarships at the Ivy League institution that exclude American students.

In an official response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. condemned the move, saying Beijing opposes the politicization of what it calls “normal scientific, educational, and academic exchanges.” The statement urged U.S. policymakers to abandon what it described as a Cold War mentality and work to build “an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for educational, scientific, and people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States.”

Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed reporting to this article. The AP’s education coverage receives funding from multiple private foundations, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

For more than 70 years, the United States and South Korea have built their mutual defense framework around regular joint military training exercises, designed to synchronize troop operations and prepare for any potential crisis or armed conflict with North Korea. However, this year’s iteration of one of their most critical annual drills, Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), faces widespread disruption after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued a last-minute order to Pentagon leaders to substantially scale back the exercise just days before its scheduled Monday launch.

Trump outlined two core justifications for the cuts: his stated belief that he maintains a positive working relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and South Korea’s refusal to participate in U.S. military operations against Iran. As of now, the full scope of cuts to the 11-day exercise remains unclear, with no public details on which components will be eliminated or how deeply they will be reduced. But regional security experts have already warned that the unexpected downsizing risks eroding decades of progress in combined operational readiness and could ultimately strain the longstanding U.S.-South Korean alliance.

Unlike some other joint drills, Ulchi Freedom Shield centers on computer-simulated command-level tabletop training, crafted to sharpen the allies’ coordinated response to regional threats, including potential North Korean military aggression. Traditionally, large-scale field training exercises are run alongside the simulation to test real-world troop deployment. Prior to Trump’s order, South Korean military officials confirmed this year’s drill would match the scale of recent iterations, with roughly 18,000 South Korean troops participating. U.S. military planners had also intended to integrate tactical lessons drawn from North Korean military operational experience in the Russia-Ukraine war into the training, and local South Korean media reported 14 separate field exercises had been scheduled.

Alongside a separate major spring joint war game, UFS forms one of the two central pillars of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, a security partnership that originated after the 1950-1953 Korean War. But the exercises have long been a flashpoint for tensions with Pyongyang, which consistently frames the drills as offensive invasion rehearsals and has responded in the past with provocative missile tests. Just last Friday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a formal accusation that Washington and Seoul were planning escalatory provocative drills, and promised a response at a “new level of deterrence.” Both the U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly emphasized that their annual exercises are strictly defensive in purpose.

In a public social media statement, Trump also argued that the exercises impose excessive costs, noting that the U.S. covers a large share of the total expense. This is not the first time Trump has taken action to disrupt joint drills: during his first presidential term, he repeatedly complained about the financial burden of training with South Korea, and suspended large-scale exercises entirely in 2018 to advance now-stalled denuclearization negotiations with Pyongyang.

According to regional media reports, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops permanently stationed in South Korea, met Tuesday with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to discuss revisions to the drill schedule. South Korea’s Defense Ministry has so far declined to confirm details of the meeting. Yang Uk, a senior security analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, projected that U.S. forces will likely still participate in the core tabletop simulation, but will scrap most large-scale, cost-heavy field training that requires mass troop movement.

Yang explained that even temporary downsizing carries long-term consequences, because senior allied commanders rotate into new roles on a regular schedule. If drills are paused or scaled back for a year, incoming commanders will lack hands-on experience with joint operational protocols when training resumes, he noted.

Other analysts warn the damage could extend far beyond this year’s exercise. Jung Chang Wook, head of the Seoul-based Korea Defense Study Forum, said Trump’s decision could open the door to deeper cuts to other regular joint drills in coming years, delivering what he called a “big, crippling blow” to the allies’ combined operational posture.

The downsizing also threatens to delay a long-planned, politically significant transition in alliance command structure: the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to a binational command led by a South Korean general. Under the current framework, the U.S. military retains command of combined allied forces in the event of a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula. Lee Illwoo, a defense expert with the Korea Defense Network, explained that this year’s UFS was intended to be a key milestone in preparations for the OPCON transfer. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung reiterated Tuesday that completing the transfer before his term ends in 2030 remains a top national priority. For many South Koreans, the shift to South Korean command is a core matter of national sovereignty, though critics argue the transition could weaken alliance coordination and deterrence against North Korean aggression.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military-backed administration, to the Kremlin for high-level talks focused on expanding bilateral cooperation across multiple key sectors. The meeting marks the seventh visit Min Aung Hlaing has made to Russia since the 2021 military seizure of power, and underscores the deepening strategic alignment between the two nations.

Opening the negotiations, Putin outlined the long-running collaboration between Moscow and Naypyidaw, spanning foreign policy coordination, security partnerships, and joint economic infrastructure projects. The two sides have already conducted multiple combined military exercises, and advanced plans are in place for Russian firms to deliver a suite of major development projects across Myanmar, including a first nuclear power plant, a deep-water seaport, new oil refining facilities, and other critical public infrastructure.

This visit is part of a broader diplomatic push by Min Aung Hlaing, who has traveled to a handful of regional powers including China, India, Laos, and Thailand in recent years. The junta leader’s global outreach aims to shore up international recognition and rebuild diplomatic standing for Myanmar, which has remained largely isolated across the global community since the military ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Western governments have responded to the power grab, which was led by Min Aung Hlaing, and the regime’s violent crackdown on opposition movements with sweeping economic and political sanctions. The repression has killed thousands of civilian non-combatants and sparked an ongoing nationwide civil conflict between junta forces and pro-democracy and ethnic resistance groups.

Moscow has repeatedly shielded Min Aung Hlaing’s government from criticism at major international forums, while Myanmar’s ruling generals have consistently backed Russia’s foreign policy priorities on the global stage. Along with Beijing, Moscow is one of the junta’s most prominent international backers and a leading supplier of military hardware; Russian-built fighter jets are currently used by the junta in offensive operations against territories held by ethnic minority armed groups, many of which are allied to national pro-democracy resistance forces.

During the talks, Min Aung Hlaing expressed gratitude to Putin for Russia’s consistent political support, and reaffirmed that Myanmar would remain a dependable strategic partner to Moscow. Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov confirmed to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting that Moscow is prepared to expand exports of fuel products, agricultural fertilizers, and industrial equipment to Myanmar, while ramping up imports of Myanmar’s agricultural goods and textile products to balance bilateral trade.

Min Aung Hlaing’s most recent prior meeting with Putin took place on the sidelines of Moscow’s World Atomic Week Forum in September 2024, and Putin has not yet conducted an official visit to Myanmar. The junta leader was formally inaugurated as Myanmar’s president in April 2025, following a staged general election that was widely rejected by United Nations experts, global human rights organizations, and the international community as neither free nor fair. Critics have labeled the vote, which was held in staggered phases across late 2024 and early 2025, as a fraudulent attempt to cement the military’s permanent control over Myanmar while creating a veneer of civilian rule.