The presence of thousands of Chinese nationals at Energy Department laboratories and facilities increases the risk of theft of critical national security information on the U.S. high-priority artificial intelligence development program, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton and 10 other Republican senators warned Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week.

The Arkansas Republican organized a letter sent Tuesday urging the expulsion of thousands of Chinese nationals or resident aliens who work in or visit energy facilities, noting their links to the Beijing government will undermine the Trump administration’s “Genesis Mission” — a Manhattan Project-like effort to achieve American dominance in artificial intelligence.

“We are concerned … that the thousands of Chinese foreign nationals who are granted access to, or work at, our labs could compromise Genesis Mission, and we urge you to take the necessary steps to protect it,” the senators said.

“China is our main competitor in the race for AI dominance, a position it occupies only because it has stolen American intellectual property and technologies and co-opted them over the years.”

China in the 1990s carried out large-scale espionage operations against Energy Department nuclear weapons laboratories. The spying resulted in the loss of secrets on all deployed U.S. nuclear warheads, according to the CIA.

The senators said that despite the past compromises, continued access by Chinese national scientists to the laboratories, where the best and brightest U.S. scientists work on critical military, economic and scientific technologies, must end, the letter said.

In recent years, as many as 3,200 Chinese nationals were approved for access to U.S. national laboratories, along with their information and technology.

“This number does not include those with lawful permanent resident status, which means there are likely hundreds, perhaps thousands, more individual Chinese citizens working in our labs,” the letter said.

Security vetting of the Chinese is insufficient and can overwhelm the Energy’s intelligence and counterintelligence screeners. Vetting also will be unable to identify the scientists and their affiliations with the 98 million-member Chinese Communist Party, whose members can be tasked with stealing foreign know-how, the letter said.

Also, Chinese scientists and researchers ostensibly not linked to the Beijing government “can be compelled in one way or another by the regime to turn over what they have learned during their time at a national laboratory,” the letter said.

“Continuing to give access to the cutting-edge work performed at these laboratories to Chinese nationals who will turn everything they know over to the CCP directly undermines the purpose of Genesis Mission,” the letter says.

“Therefore, we respectfully recommend that you mitigate threats to Genesis Mission by promulgating a policy prohibiting the national laboratories from granting Chinese nationals access to any national laboratory site, information, or technology.”