Chinese ‘spy on peers in US colleges to gain influence’

CHINESE students studying in the US are pressured to spy on their compatriots on American campuses, and academics are encouraged to censor their works, according to a new report by a group of distinguished scholars who previously supported engagement with the Asian nation.

Published yesterday by the Hoover Institution, a US think tank, the 231page document spells out how China is attempting to gain traction in politics, science, economics and technology.

“Except for Russia, no other country’s efforts to influence American politics and society is as extensive and well-funded as China’s,” the authors wrote. “In certain key ways China is exploiting America’s openness in order to advance its aims on a competitive playing field that is hardly level.”

The report comes at a tense time for Sino-american relations. Hardliners in the White House have successfully lobbied for an aggressive policy on China.

Donald Trump, the US president, is revelling in a trade war with China, which has wrong-footed Beijing. Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, will meet Mr Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend.

The authors write that China, in turn, is engaged in measures including attempting to “identify and cultivate rising politicians” and “misappropriate technologies it deems critical to its economic and military success.”

However, the authors find no support for Mr Trump’s claim, made at the UN in September, that China attempted to meddle in the midterm elections.