共和党议员在国会提案：每位中国留学生都是潜在的间谍

美国之音



美国某大学孔子学院课程宣传单

华盛顿 ——  美国国会众议员鲁尼（Rep. Francis Rooney, R-FL）星期四（9月13日）推出《阻止高等教育间谍及窃盗法》（Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2018，英文缩写简称为SHEET Act）。法案旨在防止外国情报单位利用学术交流项目窃取技术、吸收间谍及散播政治宣传。



美国国会众议员鲁尼

“像是中国这样的地缘政治对手正窃取美国科技，并滥用我们大学校园开放的研发环境，”来自佛罗里达州共和党籍众议员鲁尼在声明中说。“最明显的例子就是孔子学院，他们作为中国共产党的前锋，渗透美国校园，搜集资讯，盗窃美国科技，我们必须终止外国情报势力滥用我们的高等教育来偷取我们的技术。”

法案内容主要包括：第一，允许美国联邦调查局确定高等教育之外国威胁；第二，要求收受外国捐赠之大学采用更加严格的申报条款；第三，为保护公民自由，被指定之情报威胁将可比照外国恐怖组织相关规定起诉。

同名法案在参议院由来自德克萨斯州共和党籍参议员克鲁兹（Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX）提出。克鲁兹在声明中表示，“中国共产党妨碍美国大学教育，他们干预课程设置，将对其政权的批评噤声，并且窃盗美国知识产权。”



美国国会共和党参议员、总统大选参选人克鲁兹 （美国之音记者杨晨拍摄）

“为孔子学院建立问责制是保护我们高等学府的必要行动，”克鲁兹说。

近来，有关中国“锐实力”渗透美国各界的话题成为华盛顿议论的焦点，引发国会强烈关注。华盛顿智库威尔逊中心（The Wilson Center）日前发布报告，阐述了中国对美国大学施加的影响与干预，报告呼吁美国就中国干预行为进行调查。

报告指出，中国政府插手美国高教的现象包括：通过中国使领馆的工作人员抗议美国学校邀请的演讲嘉宾、要求取消涉及中国政治“敏感问题”的讨论会，通过留学生搜集高校师生言行，用威胁拒绝研究者的签证来迫使研究者改变学术议题等等。


相关阅读：

Activists, Legislators Fear Bill Could Lead To Profiling Of Chinese Students

“It is irresponsible to categorize an entire country of people en masse as spies,” said Rep. Judy Chu.

By Kimberly Yam



Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) says China has been “exploiting” U.S. academia’s “open research and development environment” and stealing technology.
  
Activists and legislators are concerned about a new House bill’s impact on Asians and Asian-Americans.

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) recently introduced the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2018, which would crack down on “geopolitical adversaries like China” to prevent spying in U.S. higher education institutions, according to a statement about the bill.

China has been “exploiting” U.S. academia’s “open research and development environment” and stealing technology, Rooney claims in the statement.

But Asian-American groups and some lawmakers fear, based on Rooney’s emphasis on China, that his bill could lead to racial profiling.

“I am very concerned by ongoing efforts to stereotype Chinese students, scholars, and employees as threats to our institutions of higher education,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. “While there is no doubt that we must take national security concerns seriously, it is irresponsible to categorize an entire country of people en masse as spies.”



Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) says the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2018 will encourage stereotypes and racial profiling of Chinese students.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has introduced similar legislation in the Senate, and several other Republican legislators have co-sponsored Rooney’s bill. If it becomes law, it would allow the FBI to determine foreign intelligence threats to higher education. Threat designations would be able to be appealed, the statement notes. The legislation would also require universities that receive foreign gifts to adhere to stricter reporting rules.

In his statement, Rooney cited the Confucius Institutes, a program funded by the Chinese government that partners with U.S. universities to promote Chinese language and culture. Rooney labeled the institutes as “a front by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate American campuses to gather information and steal American technologies.”

Critics have frequently criticized the Confucius Institutes as propaganda machines. Yet while Rooney and other politicians say they’re a means to spy on American institutions, Jim Lewis, senior vice president and program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told HuffPost he’s not so sure the institutes are actually effective at espionage.

“There is a massive Chinese espionage campaign against the West, but the institutes are more intended to build China’s ‘soft power,’” he told HuffPost.

Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and a member of End National Security Scapegoating, called Rooney “irresponsible” for “sanctioning” racial profiling.

“The proposed bill is a bogus attempt to whip up fear and animosity towards Chinese and Chinese Americans. This form of painting an entire group as spies and an existential threat to American universities and technology is just wrong,” Choi said.

“The proposed bill is a bogus attempt to whip up fear and animosity towards Chinese and Chinese Americans.

—Cynthia Choi, Chinese for Affirmative Action

Rooney’s comments mirror FBI Director Christopher Wray’s remarks in a February hearing that prompted a great deal of backlash from Asian-American civil rights organizations. Wray had labeled China a “whole-of-society threat” and accused Chinese individuals in academia of “taking advantage” of the American research environment.

This mentality has led “to several baseless and dismissed charges against Chinese academics and scientists,” John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, told HuffPost. Indeed, a slew of Chinese-American academics have suffered the consequences of stereotyping.

In 2015, FBI agents stormed Chinese-American professor Xiaoxing Xi’s home, rounded up his family at gunpoint and arrested him. He was threatened with up to 80 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, but the charges against him were dropped with little explanation. Similarly, hydrologist Sherry Chen was arrested in 2014, accused of using a stolen password to obtain information about U.S. dams, but a week before her trial, the case fell apart.

What’s more, a white paper published by the Chinese-American organization Committee of 100 last year showed that Asians were more likely to be charged with economic espionage than any other group, but were also found innocent at a rate two times higher than people of any other race. When convicted, those with “Asian-sounding” names received sentences twice as long as those with Western-sounding names.

“Members of Congress are once again creating great anti-Asian sentiment by unnecessarily hyping Chinese intelligence threats,” Yang told HuffPost. “This bill allows the FBI to assume the guilt of organizations and force them to prove their innocence. The American intelligence system is better than this.”

Chu said the bill will only perpetuate the harmful stereotypes already attached to Chinese academics.

“This rhetoric feeds into ugly stereotypes that endanger Chinese and Asian American students and scholars, many of whom have already expressed their concerns to me,” she said.

“No one should have to live in fear that they’ll be targeted for the crime of being Asian on a college or university campus. There is no room for this sort of prejudice in our country’s laws or practices.”