John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on China wrote to the presidents of Purdue University, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Southern California, according to a report by the Select Committee on CCP (SCCCP).
According to SCCCP, the letter questioned their participation in federally supported research and asked for details on each of their rules and procedures pertaining to the enrollment of Chinese national students in advanced STEM programs.
According to the SCCCP report, the letter emphasizes the growing threats posed by China’s calculated attempts to use American institutions for military and scientific breakthroughs. American schools are easy targets for espionage and intellectual property theft, according to intelligence authorities.
Further, prestigious colleges still admit a lot of Chinese nationals to important research programs, putting financial incentives ahead of long-term national security and American students’ education in vital subjects.
“The Chinese Communist Party has established a well-documented, systematic pipeline to embed researchers in leading US institutions, providing them direct exposure to sensitive technologies with dual-use military applications,” said Chairman Moolenaar. “America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security. If left unaddressed, this trend will continue to displace American talent, compromise research integrity, and fuel China’s technological ambitions at our expense,” as quoted by SCCCP.
After completing their doctoral studies, just 25 per cent of Chinese graduate students plan to immigrate to the United States or another Western nation, per Harvard University research. However, the SCCCP report highlighted that 25 per cent of the students plan to return to China right away after graduation, and nearly half only stay in the United States momentarily for post-graduate work before leaving.
The SCCCP report reaffirmed that this trend raises serious questions regarding the degree to which Chinese nationals eventually return knowledge to China after becoming experts in highly developed disciplines.
The House Select Committee on the CCP will continue to look into how American academic institutions might be supporting the CCP’s worldwide aspirations and will look for legislative solutions.
(With inputs from ANI)
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