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Why We Must Restrict Chinese Nationals From Studying STEM in US
Townhall.com ^ | May 1, 2020 | Senator Tom Cotton

Posted on 05/01/2020 4:50:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

Earlier this week, I suggested that the United States restrict Chinese nationals from studying advanced scientific and technological subjects in our country. My suggestion prompted a torrent of abuse from the media.

“It’s hard to know what triggered Cotton’s rant,” Catherine Rampell complained in The Washington Post, resorting to ad hominem cries of “xenophobia” while ignoring the crux of the matter. Not until the final paragraph did she even acknowledge the risk of Chinese espionage, blithely suggesting that we simply “prosecute such crimes.” I suppose Rampell has missed years of FBI warnings about Chinese espionage, so let me add some context.

Around 370,000 Chinese nationals are studying in the United States. Nearly half are studying in scientific and technological fields. According to a White House report, the Chinese government pressures some of these students into becoming “non-traditional information collectors that serve Beijing’s military and strategic ambitions”—put less politely, “spies.”

The scale of China’s espionage is a huge challenge. The FBI is investigating a thousand cases related to China’s theft of intellectual property across the country. The Chinese military has sent at least 500 military researchers to the United States, often under false identities.

For example, last year federal officers stopped a Chinese student named Yanqing Ye at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Ye studied at Boston University’s Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering, but her interests weren’t strictly academic. She admitted under questioning that she was a lieutenant in China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. During Ye’s two-year stint in our country, she allegedly researched U.S. military projects and compiled dossiers on U.S. scientists at the direction of a PLA colonel.

I have a bill to crack down on Chinese espionage by denying visas to individuals employed or sponsored by institutions associated with the PLA. But more is needed, specifically, a broader reexamination of academic exchange between our two countries, especially for STEM students at the graduate and postgraduate levels.

If Chinese nationals wish to study subjects that can improve China or the United States without strengthening the Communist Party, we ought to welcome them. But of course, the last thing Chinese communists want their people studying and bringing home is The Federalist Papers. As is more common, though, if Chinese nationals wish to study advanced scientific and technological fields with military applications, we should no longer admit these “students.”

China apologists and globalists may object, but their arguments don’t hold up under scrutiny. Some argue that “brain drain” isn’t a serious problem, citing studies that most Chinese PhD graduates stay here for years after finishing their degree instead of returning to China. But other reports suggest that nearly all Chinese graduate students in scientific and technological fields return home. Whatever the actual numbers, the hard fact of China’s espionage and technology theft remains. And how many of those researchers who stay do so to steal our research and advanced technology?

Others argue that we can’t restrict Chinese nationals because there aren’t enough trained Americans to staff our laboratories. If so, it’s a national embarrassment that we depend on our chief enemy for scientists and engineers, not a justification for continued dependence. It should spur efforts to train more American students in these fields. As a last resort, if we face a shortage of highly skilled talent, we should welcome the citizens of our allies, not our enemy. No doubt India, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan would welcome the opportunity.

Finally, others argue that restricting what Chinese nationals can study violates the spirit of openness and collaboration that characterizes our higher-education system. To which I can only say: don’t be naïve. Like a turtle on a fencepost, a Chinese national doesn’t get into our most advanced labs by accident. Besides, this argument comes mostly from colleges and universities that have allowed themselves to become financially dependent on full-freight tuition payments from Chinese students—who in turn are subsidized by the Chinese government.

But this objection, while wrong, gets at the crux of the problem. We want to protect our free research system from an unfree adversary that exploits our openness for military and industrial advantage. The United States has responded to similar threats in the past by restricting what students from such nations can study. Scientific exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States was highly restricted; even then, there was vigorous debate about whether this exchange posed an unacceptable risk to the United States. More recently, President Obama signed legislation barring Iranian students from studying fields related to nuclear weapons. I don’t recall accusations of xenophobia and racism directed at him.

China is our enemy. The Chinese Communist Party aims to displace the United States as the world’s preeminent economic and military power. We ought not to aid that ambition. Yet that’s exactly what we’re doing when we open our most advanced labs and fields of studies to Chinese nationals. Let’s not be the proverbial capitalists who would sell the rope the communists will use to hang us.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: aidandcomfort; chicoms; chinesestudents; enemywithin; espionage; h1b; media; stem
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1 posted on 05/01/2020 4:50:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Agreed! Why train our enemies?


2 posted on 05/01/2020 4:53:05 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Mocking Liberals is not only a right, but the duty of all Americans.)
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To: Kaslin

I 100% agree and I am a third generation American of Chinese descent


3 posted on 05/01/2020 4:59:13 AM PDT by wetgundog
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To: Kaslin

And what about this push by the Chinese to buy American businesses of all kinds. They actually control our food supply here in our own country. But they own many, many more. Is there any oversight on foreign ownership of American production? Is there any data of the extent of ownership?


4 posted on 05/01/2020 5:04:11 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Kaslin

CCP sends spys as students and pays the colleges lots of money to move tot he head of the line


5 posted on 05/01/2020 5:04:55 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: Kaslin

Round em up. Ship em out.


6 posted on 05/01/2020 5:10:24 AM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: elpadre

That $400-500 Billion trade surplus can buy lots of American businesses, land, housing etc.

My house was bought for cash by a Chinese buyer for $350k.


7 posted on 05/01/2020 5:15:57 AM PDT by entropy12 (covid-19 separates the fearful from the freedom loving! If I am not afraid, no one should be.)
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To: Kaslin

I agree.


8 posted on 05/01/2020 5:18:44 AM PDT by stockpirate (Anyone who believes Epstein killed himself is a fool, and the DNC wacked Seth Rich)
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To: All

We also forget about the amount of CCP nationals that are professors at many universities.


9 posted on 05/01/2020 5:35:30 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote
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To: Kaslin

Rockville, MD is chock full of Chinese labs.


10 posted on 05/01/2020 5:44:22 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Screw journalists.)
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To: entropy12
Many countries have restrictions on foreigners buying property. Usually the limit is one residence and they have to reside in the country six months of the year.
11 posted on 05/01/2020 5:46:57 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Leave it to me to be holdin' the matches when the fire truck shows up & there's nobody else to blame)
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To: Kaslin

Deport ALL Chinese students and ALL those who are not citizens.


12 posted on 05/01/2020 5:51:18 AM PDT by yardboyd ( usa)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Why employ them? How many are here on H1B?


13 posted on 05/01/2020 6:00:20 AM PDT by bobcat62
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To: wetgundog

I 100% agree and my dad grew up in the European Community of China. Pre Japanese invasion. Was in a concentration camp. Says Communist Chinese are horrible.


14 posted on 05/01/2020 6:19:00 AM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: WakeUpAndVote

My kid had a TA for algebra no one could understand.


15 posted on 05/01/2020 6:19:40 AM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: Kaslin

Restrict? Kick them all out.

Every last one.

Today.

L


16 posted on 05/01/2020 6:21:27 AM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Kaslin

It’s not enough that we deny them access.The entire civilized world needs to do so.


17 posted on 05/01/2020 6:49:54 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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To: Cowboy Bob

“The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”.


18 posted on 05/01/2020 6:50:55 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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To: Kaslin

Lieberals hate common sense.


19 posted on 05/01/2020 6:53:50 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (re: domestic supply chains: "We cannot outsource our independence!" -- Donald J. Trump)
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To: Kaslin

This should be part of a Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement bill, missing since 1986 ONE TIME amnesty. The List of Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement, missing since 1986 goes like this -

1) southern barrier;
2) require eVerify to hire;
3) end all chain migration;
4) birthright per Minor v. Happersett (plural parents);
5) end work visas;
6) 10-year moratorium on all new applications for citizenship (40 years to allow workplace automation effects on downsizing population);
7) Set up an illegal aliens’ victim restitution fund.

Enactment of these provisions will motivate illegal aliens to SELF-deport, and remove colonizadors from our welfare rolls.


20 posted on 05/01/2020 7:29:38 AM PDT by RideForever (We were born to be tested)
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