On Wednesday The Stanford Review published a report chronicling Chinese espionage at Stanford University.
The investigation was kicked off after a CCP agent impersonated a Stanford student over summer 2024.
“Under the alias Charles Chen, he approached several students through social media. Anna*, a Stanford student conducting sensitive research on China, began receiving unexpected messages from Charles Chen. At first, Charles’s outreach seemed benign: he asked about networking opportunities. But soon, his messages took a strange turn,” the Stanford Review said. “Charles inquired whether Anna spoke Mandarin, then grew increasingly persistent and personal. He sent videos of Americans who had gained fame in China, encouraged Anna to visit Beijing, and offered to cover her travel expenses. He would send screenshots of a bank account balance to prove he could buy the plane tickets. Alarmingly, he referenced details about her that Anna had never disclosed to him.”
The Chinese intel operation against STEM programs at U.S. colleges has been suspected for years. It aims to steal American research and technology to progress the Made in China 2025 (MIC 2025) agenda of the CCP.
“MIC 2025 is an initiative which strives to secure China’s position a global powerhouse in high-tech industries,” an Institute for Security & Development Policy report said in 2018.
While MIC 2025 seeks to make China a world leader in high tech industries, it also seeks to “reduce China’s reliance on foreign technology imports and invest heavily in its own innovations.” Hypocritically, the way Beijing seeks to reduce foreign reliance is by stealing foreign technologies.
“The Chinese state incentivizes students to violate conflicts of commitment and interest, ensuring they bring back technology otherwise restricted by export controls,” former U.S. National Security Council’s Director for China, Matthew Turpin said at a China Town Hall event.
As Alex Jones covered on his Monday show, China has a law that stipulates all Chinese students studying at U.S. universities must act as spies, effectively forcing them all into espionage regardless of their personal intentions.
Numerous Chinese-focused podcasts and news organization discussed the espionage report and elaborated on the findings with more evidence for the phenomenon.