China — Student Visas
The sheer number of Chinese students makes it impossible to keep track of all their potential espionage efforts.
By Laurence F. Sanford
Over 250,000 Chinese students are studying cutting-edge science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in American universities.
Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) and Representative Riley Moore (R-WV) have introduced legislation to deny student and research visas to Chinese nationals. The proposed bill is in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) national law that requires Chinese citizens to provide intelligence information to CCP authorities upon demand.
The CCP is waging unrestricted warfare against the United States. All organizations within China are unified in their goal of achieving Chinese domination over the U.S. A fusion of education with military and civilian corporations is the norm.
The sheer number of students makes it impossible to keep track of all their potential espionage efforts. Recent examples include:
Michigan — Five students were caught at night photographing U.S. and Taiwanese troops conducting live fire exercises. The Chinese students were at the University of Michigan and claimed to be there to watch a meteor shower. No charges were filed and the students were free to go.
Newport News, Virginia — A 25-year-old Chinese student attending the University of Minnesota was convicted after flying a drone with a camera over the Newport News Shipyard. Nearby is Naval Station Norfolk, which is the world’s most extensive naval base.
Chicago — Thirty-one-year-old Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who first came to the U.S. on a student visa to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was convicted of spying for the CCP. He supplied biological information on Chinese national scientists and engineers working in the U.S., who could be recruited as spies.
Chinese students are utilized as “money mules” in laundering billions of dollars generated by the illegal sale of drugs. Derek Maltz, former Drug Enforcement Agency Special Operations Director, said Chinese college students on visas distribute drugs and pick up suitcases of cash around the U.S. The cash is laundered through banks and Chinese-owned businesses, including travel agencies and restaurants.
Chinese money laundering organizations (CMLOs) launder vast sums of dirty money utilizing encrypted apps, such as Chinese-owned WeChat, to buy land, businesses, and political influencers.
John Cassara, a former CIA officer and Treasury agent, is the author of China — Specified Unlawful Activities, which argues that the CCP is the world’s largest transnational crime syndicate and illicit money laundering operation.
The CCP’s “talent plan” recruits science and technology professors, researchers, students, and others, regardless of citizenship or national origin, to apply to the talent program. It incentivizes participants with money and rewards those who steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals. The CCP also threatens their families in China if they do not follow the plan.
Summary
“The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States,” states the FBI website. A key component of the espionage efforts is Chinese students on visas in the U.S. The adversary is not the Chinese people; it is the Chinese Communist Party.
The foundation of U.S. policy should be reciprocity and common sense. The CCP has declared a non-kinetic “gray zone” war against the United States. We should recognize this declaration and respond accordingly.
The U.S. sometimes is its own worst enemy. Ji Chaoqun enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve under the “Military Accession Vital to the National Interest” program, which allows the armed services to recruit foreign workers deemed vital to the national interest.
Action
- Reduce the number of Chinese national students in the U.S. to the number of American students in China, which is approximately 10,000.
- No Chinese nationals in the U.S. military. Two Chinese citizens serving in the U.S. Navy were arrested for sharing sensitive information with the CCP.
- Stop funding U.S. universities that collaborate with Chinese organizations.
- Increase American “gray zone” and social media activities against the CCP.
Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.
