The parties are trying to sound harsher in China, but the reality is clear. The United States is engaged in an asymmetric war with the Chinese Communist Party. Anyone who hasn't compromised in Beijing understands this. However, despite efforts to support Chinese states invade our universities and technology fields, the US continues to recognize more than 300,000 Chinese students each year.
Asymmetric wars rely on subversion, spying and theft of intellectual property. All of these benefit from that type of immigration encouraged by China's “Thousand Talent Plan.” So why are we helping with that?
It is often vulnerable to allow China to strike hundreds of thousands of people in our science and technology sectors at little or no cost – it is vulnerable.
For decades, the US has recognized it 270,000-350,000 Chinese students Every year, China is one of the top two dispatching countries along with India. From 2023-24, 123,000 Chinese citizens were enrolled in graduate programs, many in sensitive field. Another 62,000 people participated in “optional practical training” and were able to work in those fields while still on student visas.
Beyond student visas, the US grants Chinese citizens more than 20,000 H-1B visas each year, with over 12,000 J-1 visas for academics and tens of thousands of additional working visas. Over the past 30 years, the US has issued nearly 2 million green cards to Chinese citizens despite clear evidence of China's long-standing campaign of economic and academic overthrow.
Seed and Destroyed through Immigration and Spying
In 2019, President Trump's National Intelligence Director Global Threat Assessment “China's intelligence reporting agency will use a variety of means to harness the openness of American society, particularly academia and the scientific community.” However, the US continues to open its doors to China, allowing its citizens to infiltrate universities, control the technical field, work in government labs, engage in trade theft, and act as an intelligence reporting agency.
Some Chinese people who come to the US may be fleeing the Communist regime, but there is no effective way to distinguish them from those who work on Beijing's behalf. Each week, US lawyers announce new indictments of Chinese students for spying, surveillance, or trade theft. Many of these individuals continue to work in highly sensitive areas and are further compromising national security.
Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigation Releases in 2019 Bipartisan report It details how 10,000 Chinese citizens conduct research at the Ministry of Energy's National Laboratory. The report found that foreign-born researchers employed by US scientific institutions are secretly funded by China. The report's conclusion was dull: “American taxpayer-funded research has contributed to China's global rise over the past 20 years.” Beijing guarantees that the US will pay for the very technology that can be used against us.
The authors of the report say that despite the aim of recruiting foreign researchers in 2008 to enable China to access advanced research and technology, the FBI did not prioritize monitoring these efforts until mid-2018 until the year of China's mass immigration pipeline. As the report states, this failure allowed China to shift “from brain drainage to brain profits.”
Beijing seeks to recruit talent from all nationalities, including covering native-born researchers, but its most effective strategy is to send its own citizens to American universities and use the US visa system to gain access to sensitive industries. China's Thousand Talent Plan manages 200 recruitment programs with the aim of introducing 2,000 “high-quality foreign talent” including scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and financial experts, according to a Senate subcommittee report. The program works under a highly organized management structure that coordinates its efforts, but the US Visa System continues to offer an open pipeline for espionage and recruitment.
Last fall, FBI Five Chinese foreign students have been charged I took photos of a live-action training exercise at the University of Michigan, which includes the Michigan State Guard and the Taiwanese Army at Camp Greyling. December, Ministry of Justice He indicted the Chinese citizens They were illegally overstaying visas with weapons and ammunition to North Korea.
Visa employees are particularly concerned with the Chinese people. Several estimates have been suggested In 2022 alone, more than 9,000 Chinese students remained in the US after the visa expired, poses additional national security risks.
You need to pause, not a fake “viewing”
Some argue that instead of stopping the flow of Chinese international students, they should focus on improving screening measures. But how can you tell who is being operated or controlled by the CCP? More importantly, why should this burden be put on us?
The 2019 Senate Subcommittee Report highlights the challenges of reviewing individuals on F-1 and J-1 visas. The lawsuit from the Southern District of New York revealed that Chinese officials are exploiting weaknesses in US visa screening, particularly for students and research scholars. In 2019, China's National Zhongshan Liu was accused of conspiring to fraudulently obtain US visas for Chinese government officials. According to the complaint, Liu promoted visas for individuals pretending to be research scholars, but their true purpose was to recruit scientists and researchers for the Chinese talent recruitment program.
Clearly, this has become an omnipresent issue. We have no way of distinguishing between people who are not threatened and those who are here for evil reasons.
Even if a student, academic, or some individual on a worker visa is fully intended, they remain vulnerable to CCP feared mail. Almost all of them have families in China and use their actions to Beijing.
As the 2024 DNI Threat Assessment warned, “PRC will monitor Chinese students for opposition views, mobilize Chinese student associations to carry out activities on Beijing's behalf, and influence research by American academics and think tank experts.” Given that level of surveillance and coercion, it's easy to imagine how even people working in US labs where the CCP holds deep resentment towards the administration could put pressure on them.
Recent Reports from Freedom House observation: “The biggest threat to international students and academics studying and working in the United States is the Chinese government.” However, CCP is not just a threat to students, it is a threat to the entire American population.
It is often vulnerable to allow China to strike hundreds of thousands of people in our science and technology sectors at little or no cost – it is vulnerable. This is not just an exchange of education. This is a long-term strategy by Beijing to infiltrate key industries, collect intelligence and gain critical advantages over the US.
