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More than a decade ago, Chinese physicist Pan Jian-Wei returned home from Europe to help oversee research into some of the most important technology of the 21st century. At a conference in Shanghai this summer, Pan and his team offered a rare peek at the work he described as a “revolution.” They spoke of the hacking-resistant communications networks they are building across China, the sensors they are designing to see through smog and around corners, and the prototype computers that may someday smash the computational power of any existing machine.

Monitoring Chinese scholars in the United States could “trample on individual rights” and impede scientific research, a group of prominent higher-education associations said in a statement released on Monday. The statement, published by the PEN America, a free-speech nonprofit organization, is the latest signal that advocates for American research universities are worried about higher education’s position in the cross hairs as political and economic tensions between the two countries heighten.