Although the consulate was directing all the activities of the “spy network” the U.S. State Department said “we were unable to prosecute much of the criminal activity due to the diplomatic immunity of the Chinese nationals responsible.”
According to reporting by the Houston Chronicle, Kevin R. Gamache, the A&M System’s chief research security officer, said the system “works very closely with our federal partners including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to protect our research enterprise.”
The Trump administration announced last week that the A&M flagship in College Station would lead the effort of mass-producing a coronavirus vaccine candidate as part of the plan to make vaccine shots available to the U.S. population in record time.
A Justice Department official said the department’s increased outreach and threat briefings to universities has led them to more cases of China’s espionage but emphasized that the 6 to 7 recently announced investigations and cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
