FBI: China has infiltrated scores of US universities
NEW YORK CITY (AP)— The FBI on Tuesday warned US universities about Chinese intelligence operatives active on their campuses, adding that many academics display “a level of naivete” about the level of infiltration.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee that China has aggressively placed operatives at universities, “whether its professors, scientists, students,” and the bureau must monitor them from its 56 field offices across the nation.
“It’s every field office, not just major cities. It’s small ones as well,” Wray said.
The FBI is also “watching warily” activities at dozens of Confucius Institutes, Chinese government-sponsored academies that are often embedded within universities and public schools to offer US students Mandarin language classes.
Some 350,000 Chinese students are enrolled at US universities, about 35 percent of the more than one million foreigners attending university in the country, the Institute of International Education estimates.
The Senate hearing to discuss an annual assessment of worldwide threats focused heavily on Russian hacking and the nuclear threat from North Korea. But several senators pushed the five intelligence agency chiefs and the FBI director testifying at the hearing about China’s ambitions.
Wray described China as using a lot of “nontraditional collectors” of intelligence and technology, not only in the business community but also in academia.
“I think the level of naivete on the part of the academic sector about this creates its own issues. They’re exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere. But they’re taking advantage of it,” Wray said.
A little more than a decade ago, China began following in the footsteps of the United States, Britain, France and Germany in creating institutes abroad to promote their languages.
The Confucius Institutes now number more than 100 at public and private universities, colleges and even high schools. Several hundred more Confucius Classrooms teach Mandarin at elementary, middle and high schools across the country.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida wrote last week to five Florida institutions — Miami Dade College and the universities of North Florida, South Florida and West Florida as well as to Cypress Bay High School in Broward County — asking that they shut down their Confucius programs.
A smattering of universities have eliminated their Confucius Institute programs, but the programs continue at universities in North and South Carolina, California, Kentucky, Idaho, Texas, Missouri and Kansas, among other states.