China is not a friendly competitor. It is very much a strategic threat, one that is actively working to undermine the United States and Western values of freedom and liberty. Yet too many universities and policymakers fail to recognize the danger.
Many universities have been blinded by dollar signs. They pay agents to recruit international students, primarily because they will pay full tuition. China is more than happy to pay the price. Prior to the pandemic, 35% of all foreign students in the U.S. were Chinese nationals. That number has since dropped by more than half, but Chinese students still fill a disproportionately large share of seats, especially in post-graduate STEM classrooms.
Innovations and technical advances generated by university-based research (along with private-sector research and development) have been a boon to U.S. security as well as our economy. But in its quest to become a global power, Beijing uses a variety of tactics — illegal as well as legal — to glean cutting-edge technology and intellectual property from university research systems, international laboratories and corporate research and development facilities.
As a result, China is catching up fast. Last fall, officials at the National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned that universities, business executives and state and local officials need to do a better job of protecting their intellectual property. Failure to do so, the Associated Press reported, “could eventually give Beijing a decisive military edge and possible dominance over health care and other essential sectors in America.”
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