{"id":22442,"date":"2020-01-30T14:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T19:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22442"},"modified":"2020-01-30T14:53:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T19:53:00","slug":"china-espionage-visas-congress-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/01\/30\/china-espionage-visas-congress-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need a Coronavirus-like Response to the Threat Posed by Chinese Spying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A number of American universities and colleges, including several in Texas<\/a>, Michigan<\/a>, and Arizona<\/a>, have decided to restrict<\/a> student travel to China in the light of concerns raised by government agencies<\/a> about the potential danger posed by the novel coronavirus. The recent arrests<\/a> of three individuals on charges of aiding the People\u2019s Republic of China underscores the need for a similar seriousness in countering the national security threat posed by the communist nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lengths to which China will go to achieve its economic and military goals was evidenced in the Justice Department announcement<\/a> on Tuesday of charges against Dr. Charles Lieber, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, for allegedly lying to the FBI about his ties to the Thousand Talents Plan, a Chinese program designed to recruit Chinese and non-Chinese who will give them scientific and military research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lieber, who was the beneficiary of more than\n$15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and\nDepartment of Defense (DOD) since 2008, allegedly lied to the FBI about a\ncontract signed with China’s Wuhan University of Technology that paid him\n$50,000 a month and covered other living expenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unrelated to Lieber\u2019s case, the Justice Department announced\ntwo other arrests which speak to the breadth of China\u2019s espionage efforts. In\nthe first case, Yanqing Ye, described herself as a student on her J-1 visa\napplication, but did not mention (as required) she is a lieutenant in the\nPeople\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA), China\u2019s armed forces, and member of the Chinese\nCommunist Party. According to the Justice Department, while Ye was attending\nBoston University from 2017 to 2019, she \u201ccontinued to work as a PLA Lieutenant\ncompleting numerous assignments from PLA officers such as conducting research,\nassessing U.S. military websites and sending U.S. documents and information to\nChina.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other arrest involves China\u2019s ongoing attempts to steal scientific research. In December 2019, Zaosong Zheng, who also came to the U.S. on a J-1 exchange visitor visa<\/a>, was arrested while trying to return to China with 21 vials of biological research\u00a0stuffed into his bags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the coronavirus, awareness of the China threat is not new. In 2018, Assistant Attorney General John Demers told Congress<\/a> that China has no qualms about reaching their goals \u201cthrough malign behaviors that exploit features of a free-market economy and an open society like ours.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fact that China\u2019s plans have not been hidden, the government and academia have done little to counter it<\/a>, according to a report<\/a>\u00a0by the Senate Homeland Security Committee\u2019s permanent subcommittee on investigations. That report exposes the inaction from federal agencies over the last 20 years to counter China\u2019s recruitment of potential spies within academia and government laboratories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeland security officials \u00a0have also been sounding louder alarm bells in the last year as they pursue more than 200 potential cases<\/a> of espionage on college campuses alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf recently\nindicated that the Trump administration is planning a more robust response,\neven if it has to be done through executive action. If there is going to be a\nserious response to China, then it must be one that reaches beyond mere words\nand congressional hearings. The United States must respond with an equally\nsocietal approach, including rethinking the foreign exchange programs, education\nand work visas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that there seem to be Democrats and Republicans willing to work toward clawing back at China. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) plans to introduce<\/a> legislation to update the Foreign Agents Registration Act and tighten restrictions on researchers in the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shall see if the bill\nactually does anything or goes anywhere. In the meantime, we can wait for the\nnext spy for China is unearthed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A number of American universities and colleges, including several in Texas, Michigan, and Arizona, have decided to restrict student travel to China in the light of concerns raised by government agencies about the potential danger posed by the novel coronavirus. The recent arrests of three individuals on charges of aiding the People\u2019s Republic of China<\/p>\n

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