The Seven Sons of National Defence (Chinese: 国防七子) or colloquially G7 (Guofang 7) is a grouping of the public universities affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.
[1][2] They are widely believed to have close scientific research partnerships and projects with the People’s Liberation Army.
[3][4] The universities of the Seven Sons of National Defence include:[5] Three quarters of university graduates recruited by defense related state-owned enterprises in China come from the Seven Sons.
[6] The Seven Sons devote at least half of their research budgets to military products.
[7] According to the Hoover Institution, the Seven Sons "operate as prime pathways for harvesting US research and diverting it to military applications.