Some US lawmakers are trying to pass legislation that would make it harder for Chinese students and academics to work in the US, citing security concerns as a trade dispute rages between Washington and Beijing.
The members of US Congress, mostly US President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, are writing bills that would require more reporting from colleges, universities and laboratories about funds from China, prohibit students or academics with ties to the Chinese military from entering the US or set new limits on access to sensitive academic research.
Failure to comply could mean financial hardship.
The proposed bills add to growing pressure against Chinese students, academics, firms and other organizations in the US.
Amid the escalating trade dispute between China and the US, members of Congress have become increasingly concerned that the thousands of Chinese students, professors and researchers in the US could pose a security threat by carrying sensitive information back to China.
Republican US Senator John Cornyn on Wednesday said that he hoped to win bipartisan support for the “Secure our Research Act,” a bill he plans to introduce next week to prompt US institutions to do more to protect valuable research.
“We are under attack,” Cornyn said at a US Senate Committee on Finance hearing examining foreign threats to US research. “Their [China’s] goals are to dominate the United States military and economically.”
Cornyn, who is also a member of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called US academia “naive” about the threat from China.
He warned that he would not vote for any plan to give taxpayer dollars to public institutions unless they improve security.
Many of the individual bills face little chance of passing, despite growing bipartisan concern in Congress over security risks from China.
While Trump and many other Republicans want stricter controls on immigration, as well as a hard line on China, Democrats, who control the US House of Representatives, have warned about the risks of making immigrants feel unwelcome.
“Foreign-born scientists put Americans on the moon. They worked on the Manhattan Project. Nearly a third of all American Nobel laureates were born outside the US,” said Senator Ron Wyden, another intelligence committee member who is the ranking Democrat on the finance panel.
Lawmakers from both parties, as well as university officials, point to the multimillion-dollar contribution to the US economy from the 350,000 Chinese in the US for undergraduate or graduate studies.
“We believe that the overwhelming number of international students from all countries come here with the best of intentions and we should continue to encourage them to come,” American Council on Education senior vice president Terry Hartle said.
However, small pieces of the measures could make their way into broader, must-pass bills, like the massive annual National Defense Authorization Act, which is currently making its way through Congress.
Separately, intelligence officials believe that China might have been behind a massive data breach that compromised the personal details of thousands of Australian National University students and staff.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that senior intelligence officials have pointed the finger at China as one of only a few countries capable of pulling off the hack, which compromised up to 19 years’ worth of personal data from students and staff.
The university revealed the breach on Tuesday, with vice chancellor Brian Schmidt saying that it had detected an “unauthorized access to significant amounts” of data, including the bank numbers, tax details, academic records and passport details of students and staff dating back almost two decades.
The Australian Signals Directorate said the hack appeared to be the work of a sophisticated actor, and now intelligence officials are reportedly pointing the finger at China.
The university, based in Canberra, has graduates throughout the public service, including in Australia’s intelligence and security agencies.
Quoting senior intelligence officials, the newspaper yesterday reported fears that the data would be used to recruit students or alumni as informants.
The university is home to the influential School of Strategic and Defence Studies and the Crawford School of Public Policy, which have close links with Australian government departments and agencies.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in