Beneath the Surface: Espionage Allegations
The backdrop to this crackdown includes a string of alarming cases involving Chinese nationals on student visas who have allegedly engaged in intelligence-gathering missions on U.S. soil.
In 2023, five Chinese students at the University of Michigan were charged with lying to federal agents after they were caught photographing a U.S. military base in the middle of the night. In another case, a Chinese graduate student was convicted under the Espionage Act for flying a drone over a naval shipyard in Virginia—gathering classified images of submarine facilities.
U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have increasingly linked these cases to China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which requires all Chinese citizens to cooperate with state intelligence work, including while abroad.
Under their law, “Every single Chinese student could legally be compelled to spy for the CCP,” warned Congressman Riley Moore, who recently introduced the Stop CCP VISAs Act in the U.S. Senate. “Even if just 1% of the nearly 300,000 Chinese students here are spies, that’s 3,000 potential operatives.”
