Targeting Military Installations, IP Theft: A Look at Criminal Cases Involving Chinese Students: Federal Prosecutors Have Brought a Number of Criminal Cases Against Chinese Students and Professors in Recent Years; Alleged CCP Influence Operations Involve Paid Protesters in New York

By admin On Jun 14, 2025

Targeting Military Installations, IP Theft: A Look at Criminal Cases Involving Chinese Students:

Federal prosecutors have brought a number of criminal cases against Chinese students and professors in recent years.

he Trump administration’s pledge that it will begin to “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students follows years of concern over the Chinese regime’s efforts to infiltrate U.S. academia.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on May 29 that the United States will begin revoking Chinese student visas, specifically targeting those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or studying in critical fields. It will also revise visa criteria and heighten scrutiny for future visa applications.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on May 29 said the government is enhancing scrutiny of all Chinese visa holders in the United States. She declined to detail specific criteria the department will use in assessing applications.

“We will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of U.S universities or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition,” Bruce said.

A total of 277,398 students from China were enrolled in U.S. entities in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, according to a collaborative report from the State Department and the Institute of International Education.

The FBI warned in a 2019 bulletin that the CCP exploits the openness of the U.S. academic environment to conduct economic espionage to advance its own scientific, economic, and military goals.

While the vast majority of Chinese students and researchers are in the United States for legitimate academic reasons, the FBI said, the CCP uses some Chinese students, particularly postgraduate students and postdoctorate researchers studying science, engineering, and mathematics, to “operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property.”

According to China’s state-run media Xinhua, of the more than 99 million members of the Party, nearly 2.8 million were students, as of the end of 2023.

Christopher Balding, senior fellow at the UK-based think tank Henry Jackson Society and contributor to The Epoch Times, wrote on social media platform X that universities had been refusing to recognize what he called “real security problems” despite repeated warnings.

“We need to do much better and deeper background checks and children of CCP officials should not be studying in the US,” Balding said.

In recent years, federal prosecutors have brought a number of criminal cases against Chinese students. Here are some of those cases.

Targeting US Military Installations —>READ MORE HERE

Alleged CCP Influence Operations Involve Paid Protesters in New York:

New protests coincide with CCP’s intensified persecution campaign against religious group Falun Gong.

Tactics used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to influence public perception in the United States appear to be evolving.

In the past, groups of Chinese individuals were often observed arriving by bus, waving red Communist Party flags, and positioning themselves to counter human rights protests, particularly those by Falun Gong practitioners, a group persecuted in China.

More recently are instances in which small groups, including non-Chinese individuals, participate in protests that appear to align with CCP narratives.

These activities, as The Epoch Times has documented, have raised concerns among some observers about foreign influence operations in the United States.

On May 9, a small group of fewer than 10 individuals, primarily non-Chinese, showed up near a human rights parade organized by Falun Gong practitioners in New York City.

The group held banners and distributed materials that appeared to echo the anti-Falun Gong propaganda found in Chinese state media. The materials were written in English. A Chinese man, wearing a lime green jacket, filmed the group throughout the event and at times appeared to give instructions to the others, The Epoch Times has observed.

An Epoch Times freelancer reported overhearing a police officer ask one protester, a black man, if he was paid to participate. The man responded, “$200.”

The officer turned to colleagues and said, “I told you they were paid.”

The Epoch Times has not independently verified this payment or its source.

Three individuals involved in similar protests—one Hispanic, one black, and one Chinese—previously said they participated for financial reasons. The Hispanic individual described the activity as “work,” while the others mentioned needing the money, according to interviews conducted by The Epoch Times.

Sarah Cook, a China researcher who has studied influence operations, expressed concern about the involvement of Americans in activities that may align with CCP objectives, potentially without full awareness of the context.