An investigation by the Stanford Review alleges “Chinese academic espionage” is “widespread” at the California university. Stanford told Breitbart News that it “takes its commitment to national security with the utmost seriousness, and we are acutely aware of the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party to all research universities.”
“After interviewing multiple anonymous Stanford faculty, students, and China experts, the Review can confirm that the CCP is orchestrating a widespread intelligence-gathering campaign at Stanford,” the student newspaper revealed in a Wednesday X post.
According to the investigation, an agent with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “impersonated a Stanford student” under the alias Charles Chen, then took to social media, where he began messaging students, including one who was “conducting sensitive research on China,” the Stanford Review reported.
“At first, Charles’s outreach seemed benign,” the newspaper explained, noting that the CCP agent initially “asked about networking opportunities,” shortly before “his messages took a strange turn.”
The student, who goes by the pseudonym Anna in the article, told the newspaper that Chen’s messages became more persistent and personal over time, and that he eventually sent her videos of Americans he said became famous in China, before encouraging her to visit Beijing, at which point he even offered to pay for her travel expenses.
“He would send screenshots of a bank account balance to prove he could buy the plane tickets. Alarmingly, he referenced details about her that Anna had never disclosed to him,” the Stanford Review said.
Chen reportedly advised Anna to visit China for only 24 to 144 hours in order to avoid a run-in with authorities over her visa status. He also urged the Stanford student to communicate with him solely on the Chinese messaging app WeChat — monitored heavily by the CCP.
After speaking with experts familiar with espionage tactics, Anna went to authorities, who reportedly investigated the matter and discovered that Chen had no affiliation with the university.
“Instead, he had posed as a Stanford student for years, slightly altering his name and persona online, targeting multiple students, nearly all of them women researching China-related topics,” the Stanford student newspaper reported.
The experts who spoke with Anna reportedly surmised that Chen is a Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) agent, tasked with identifying sympathetic Stanford students and collecting intelligence.
“Many individuals spoke to us on the condition of anonymity,” the Stanford Review explained in a follow-up X post, citing one student who was too afraid to share their story, telling the newspaper, “The risk is too high.”
“The CCP has designed a full-stack approach to information collection at Stanford and beyond. It mandates student compliance, directs them to sensitive research areas, and requires reports on their research,” the Stanford Review added.
“An anonymous Stanford-educated CCP member” reportedly revealed that “the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) directs students’ research priorities to align with state-sponsored research” and “the CSC requires grantees to return to China with Stanford research projects, methodologies, lab workflows, collaborative structures, and even communication channels,” the newspaper said.
One Chinese international student told the Stanford Review that “many Chinese [nationals] have handlers” and the CCP wants “to know everything that’s going on at Stanford. This is a very normal thing. They just relay the information they have.”
Matthew Turpin, a security analyst and former U.S. National Security Council Director for China under President Donald Trump’s first administration, told the newspaper, “The Chinese government spends a lot of time collecting data on its overseas students.”
“It has a pretty good understanding of who is doing what and if someone is working in an area of interest [frontier technology],” Turpin added. “If students have access to things the government would like access to, it is relatively easy to reach out to an individual.”
“The CCP exacts harsh penalties on students who don’t comply,” the Stanford Review added in a follow-up X post, citing a China expert familiar with Stanford, who said Chinese authorities have had “parents and relatives brought in for a talk with the police, to encourage [Chinese international students] to turn over information.”
“Make no mistake, these students are victims of their own government,” the newspaper declared on X. “This article was written to present firsthand accounts of an issue that has been silenced due to widespread accusations of academic repression.”
You can read the full article published Wednesday in the Stanford Review here.
“Stanford takes its commitment to national security with the utmost seriousness, and we are acutely aware of the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party to all research universities,” a university spokesperson told Breitbart News.
The spokesperson continued:
Stanford has rigorous policies and processes in place to ensure that research by its faculty and students is conducted in a manner that safeguards America’s interests. Stanford does not conduct classified or secret research. Stanford has a university-wide process for reporting threats to research security, and carefully assesses all reports. Stanford consults with federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to ensure our policies and procedures are rigorous and protect national security. We are looking into the reports in the Stanford Review article, and have reached out to federal law enforcement to consult on appropriate actions.
“It is also very important to distinguish between threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party, and Chinese and Chinese-American faculty and students who are at Stanford to learn and contribute to the generation of knowledge, and are valued members of our community,” the spokesperson added.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
Read the full article here