Head of US House panel urges schools to reconsider ‘nefarious' Chinese scholarship programme

The Star

12 hours ago

Representative John Moolenaar, the head of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is calling on seven American universities, including Dartmouth College, to reconsider partnerships with a Chinese scholarship organisation.
The move is the latest congressional attempt to curb the flow of Chinese students to the US over national security concerns. Since taking over as chair of the committee, Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, has made ending US-China partnerships a priority.
In letters dated Tuesday and released Wednesday, he asked the schools' presidents to reassess ties with the Chinese Scholarship Council, the primary body in China providing state-funded scholarships to facilitate academic exchange.
He also asked them to provide details about their contractual agreements with the CSC, the Chinese entities that CSC-sponsored students came from and joined after graduation, the students' involvement in US government-funded research and an explanation of how supporting China-linked talent aligns with US interests.
In addition to Dartmouth, targeted schools include Temple University; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, Irvine; the University of California, Riverside; the University of Notre Dame; and the University of Tennessee.
The CSC announced in August that up to 240 outstanding Chinese students would be selected to work towards a master's or doctorate degree at the seven schools this year. Study tracks across a wide range of disciplines, including agriculture, engineering, public health, liberal arts and sociology, would be open for application, and in some cases the costs would be borne by both the CSC and the US institution.
The Chinese Communist Party 'has a long track record of acquiring US technology through both legal and illegal tactics – including talent recruitment programs, academic partnerships that serve its military, forced tech transfer, espionage, and outright theft', Moolenaar said in a statement on Wednesday.
He characterised the CSC as a 'nefarious' Communist Party-managed 'technology transfer effort that exploits US institutions'. In his letters, he argued that CSC programmes were distinct from other international student programmes as they require students to return to China upon graduation and work there for at least two years, as well as provide regular updates to the Chinese government about their progress throughout their study period.
Many governments, including India, Malaysia and Singapore, provide scholarships to their citizens with mandatory return requirements, aimed at building capacity in critical sectors and preventing brain drain.
In 2023, the CSC sent over 10,000 students abroad for advanced education. Besides the US, other popular destinations included Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and New Zealand.
US government interest in Chinese students has picked up in recent months, heaping fresh pressure on academic partnerships set up to share information and break down barriers between the US and China.
In May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would 'aggressively' revoke visas of Chinese students, including those with 'connections' to China's Communist Party and in 'critical fields'. During his first term, US President Donald Trump restricted visas for students affiliated with China's 'military-civil fusion strategy'.
Over the past year, as a result of pressure from Moolenaar's committee, schools across the country, from research giants such as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, to less research-focused institutions like Michigan's Oakland University and Eastern Michigan University, have ended partnerships with Chinese entities.
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the US, behind only India. Most students do not attend with funding from the Chinese government.
The total number of Chinese students in the US dropped to about 277,000 during the 2023-24 academic year from a peak of about 372,000 a few years earlier, according to the latest data compiled by the New York-based Institute of International Education.
Many US universities and academics acknowledge a need to strengthen research security but caution against casting broad suspicion on Chinese citizens, noting that only small numbers have been accused of espionage. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST