An investigation by student journalists at Stanford University claims the school has been infiltrated by Chinese spies seeking sensitive data on critical areas like artificial intelligence and robotics. The article follows years of warnings by intelligence and national security officials that some international students report back to their home countries about top-secret research.
Widespread spying at Stanford?
The Stanford Review, a student-run news site, said the Chinese Communist Party is “orchestrating a widespread intelligence-gathering campaign” at the elite California university. The article cited interviews with more than a dozen faculty members, students and China experts. Most spoke on condition of anonymity.
The article contained no concrete examples of spying at Stanford, one of the nation’s top research institutions. However, it detailed suspicious activity by a Chinese national posing as a student and asserted that many Chinese students report to “handlers” about “everything that’s going on at Stanford.”
The Stanford Review also reported that a Stanford student from China was indicted in 2020 for allegedly lying on her U.S. visa applications about her affiliation with the Chinese military. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges a year later.
Stanford officials have long suspected Chinese infiltration, the article said, but have kept their concerns quiet.
“Transnational repression, $64 million in Chinese funding, and allegations of racial profiling have contributed to a pervasive culture of silence at Stanford and beyond,” the article reported.
Stanford’s administration has not commented on the reporting.
Congressional scrutiny
The chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party recently said top U.S. universities are “increasingly used as conduits for foreign adversaries to illegally gain access to critical research and advanced technology.”
Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said in a March letter to six universities that they may be enabling academic espionage by admitting large numbers of Chinese nationals into advanced science, technology, engineering and math programs, commonly referred to as STEM studies.
“Too many U.S. universities continue to prioritize financial incentives over the education of American students, domestic workforce development and national security,” Moolenaar wrote.
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The Defense Department said in 2014 that nearly one-fourth of foreign attempts to obtain U.S. secrets came through academic institutions.
He asked the schools — Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Illinois, Maryland and Southern California — to provide information on their oversight of Chinese students, those students’ involvement in federally funded research, and the security of sensitive technologies developed on their campuses.
In the fall of 2024, Moolenaar’s committee issued a report that said federal research grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars had “contributed to China’s technological advancements and military modernization.”
The report said American academic researchers have worked with Chinese counterparts on topics such as high-performance explosives, tracking of targets and other military applications — “the kind of technology that the Chinese military could use against the U.S. military in the event of a conflict.”
Longtime concerns
Academic espionage has captured the attention of national security officials for at least the past decade.
In 2014, the Department of Defense said nearly one-fourth of attempts by foreign governments to obtain U.S. secrets came through academic institutions. Five years later, the Department of Justice brought charges against nine Iranian nationals who allegedly hacked into email accounts of professors at 144 U.S. universities. They were accused of stealing intellectual property and research data.
Still, criminal cases involving academic programs are rare, convictions are even rarer.
In 2009, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Tennessee was sentenced to four years in federal prison for sharing sensitive military information. No students were charged.
Nuanced issue
More than 1 million international students attend American universities, and thousands of professors are foreign nationals. In congressional testimony in 2018, a top FBI official said their participation in university research presents both benefits and risks.
“Many of these visitors contribute to the impressive successes and achievements enjoyed by these institutions, which produce advanced research, cutting-edge technology and insightful scholarship,” Bill Priestap, then the assistant FBI director for counterintelligence, said. “However, this open environment also puts academia at risk for exploitation by foreign actors who do not follow our rules or share our values.”
He pledged the FBI would do more to safeguard against espionage on campus.
“However, we must also be smart and careful,” he added. “What makes these schools great also makes them vulnerable.”
