“we didn’t want the researchers hiring themselves out to the Iranians, Saddam Hussein or other unsavory parties.”
There are very few parties more unsavory than China and we funded them as well.
Why not. Wernher von Braun ring any bells
Funding of China was done so the opportunists at NIH could continue to have opportunity. That was done behind everyone’s back via funding a US shell company that farmed the research out to China. The funding of labs in Ukraine, Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union was a matter of law and public record.