‘America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing,’ the committee chairman warned.
The House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asked six leading universities Wednesday for detailed information on Chinese students enrolled in their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.
Committee chairman Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) penned the letter, addressed to Carnegie Mellon, Purdue University, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, and the University of Southern California. Moolenaar quizzed the presidents of the schools on their policies surrounding enrolled Chinese students and the students’ participation in U.S. government-funded research.
Growing bipartisan hawkishness toward China has resulted in congressional groups, Senate coalitions, and governors calling for a stronger stance against the communist regime in the name of national security—and in the face of increasing cyber intrusions, privacy concerns, and intensifying technological, military and economic rivalry.
Warning that American universities were soft targets for China as they provide a means for the CCP to exploit “technological and military advancements,” the letter put forward a string of 20 questions.
In the first six-point request for information, Moolenaar asked for sources of Chinese students’ tuition fees, the type of research they are conducting, and the programs they are involved in.
He also called for a list of universities attended by the students prior to their current enrollment, the laboratories and research initiatives they were part of, and a “country-by-country breakdown of applicants, admittances, and enrollments.”
In a second 14-point questionnaire, the missive asked university presidents to indicate the percentage of Chinese nationals enrolled at their institutions, the percentage of them engaged in federally-funded programs, and whether the institutions in question barred foreigners from working on “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, [and] National Science Foundation funded research.”
The questionnaire also inquired if there were measures in place to track students working in these programs.
“What collaborations exist between university faculty and China-based institutions or research laboratories?” the letter also asked. “Have any Chinese graduate students disclosed participation in China-backed recruitment and talent programs, government grants, or corporate-backed funding initiatives?”
By Dave Malyon
