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FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

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Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#61

Post by ilamont »

The Chinese government has been very aggressive when it comes to media in foreign countries. Via Foreign Policy (http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/21/one-of-americas-biggest-...):

In recent years, and especially since Xi became president in 2012, the Chinese government has sought various ways to increase its influence over China’s 40 million-strong diaspora. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a ministry specifically dedicated to the task, works to extend the party’s reach, and the push has seen increasing success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, where local ethnic Chinese organizations have begun to vocally push for pro-Beijing policies.

For years The Washington Post ran a paid supplement from the China Daily supplement, which was basically propaganda aimed at English speakers (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/of...):

For instance, the item above: "Stop Telling Us What We Should Do," with "we" being China and the object of the imperative sentence being the nagging United States. Or this one and this, clarifying how unfair it was for foreigners to criticize China's "rare earths" exports policy. As a matter of fact, China's "actions taken in the past few months, and those to be taken in the months to come, are totally legitimate."

In Canada, the CCP pushed Canadian officials to ban English-language reporters from certain events featuring a Chinese official, and kick out a reporter from a local Chinese newspaper that criticized China's human rights record (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/wynne-agrees-t...).

In Hong Kong, the situation for media companies is much worse - agents kidnapped book publishers and booksellers off the street in Hong Kong and Thailand and shipped them to China for trial. Their crimes? Publishing or selling unauthorized books about government officials (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/17/china-behaving... ).

Lam, the 61-year-old manager of the Causeway Bay bookstore, claimed he had spent months in solitary confinement in a cramped cell after being snatched by a group of men as he entered mainland China in October 2015.

“They blindfolded me and put a cap on my head and basically bundled me up,” Lam told reporters.

Lam claimed Chinese agents had forced him to confess to crimes he had not committed during his detention. He said he had decided to speak out after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong to protest the booksellers’ disappearances.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#62

Post by jdavis703 »

tptacek wrote: post #43
DanAndersen wrote: post #32

During my undergrad university days (at the University of Utah), I took some Mandarin classes. There was a local Confucius Institute which provided various free materials in Chinese to the campus library. The extent of my direct contact with them was receiving a couple hundred dollars for doing well in a Mandarin speech contest they held for my class. It was obvious that there was a certain propaganda aspect to this…

Why would you expect the Confucius Institute to provide information on the negatives of Chinese government? It's a Chinese culture organization, and it's directly affiliated with the government of China.

Voice of America, and other media provided by the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau provide a balanced perspective on the U.S. If there are anti-government situations going on, they cover it. Just take a look at the headlines about Trump on voanews.com vs. the headlines about Xi on xinhuanet.com.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#63

Post by platinumrad »

Cyberdog wrote: post #53
platinumrad wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>EDIT: damn, downvotes are coming fast for this one. I wonder why :^) The China Internet Defense Force strikes again. My impression is that the PRC doesn't even have to pay for shills (as opposed to the ROC) as nationalistic fervor is strong enough among the general population for this sort of activity to occur organically but I could be wrong about either or both.

Are you speaking of the 50 Cent Army? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

No I'm talking about impassioned nationalistic defenses of China on western social media platforms, not Chinese ones. Even if they are much more critical internally, on issues like Tibet which are seen as hypocritical attempts by western forces to impugn their national sovereignty, my impression is that most of the actions by Chinese internet commentators are undirected.

Again, I could be wrong about this as I am not an expert in internet shills but only a casual observer of them.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#64

Post by rhizome »

PricelessValue wrote: post #48

Isn't this well known fact? It isn't a secret that the chinese, along with the israelis, russians, british, french, japanese, koreans, canadians and even the saudis have operatives in academia, government, business, etc. And of course we have operatives in all those countries as well.

Not to mention that "operative" has a specific meaning in the Intelligence Community. While the intent of this report appears to imply that operatives are under official control, they are mostly people who might be relied on to support or instigate a policy preference. Contrast with "agent," "handler," etc.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#65

Post by sevensor »

GuiA wrote: post #19

Reminds me of this story from last year: But those [Chinese] students often bring to campus something else from home: the watchful eyes and occasionally heavy hand of the Chinese government, manifested through its ties to many of the 150-odd chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations. The groups have worked in tandem with Beijing to promote a pro-Chinese agenda and tamp down anti-Chinese speech on Wes…

I was reminded of the same article. My first thought was that this is blown a bit out of proportion. While the Confucius Institutes are definitely working for a foreign intelligence service, my impression was that their main function was to eliminate free speech by Chinese students abroad. I believe they also apply pressure to suppress criticism of the regime's policies by Americans. I suspect industrial espionage is a distant third. Surely the Chinese government is pursuing industrial espionage means that are both more effective and less obvious? I'm much more troubled by the suppression of dissent.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#66

Post by 0xfeba »

zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

A more likely explanation is that if you can afford to send your child far overseas, pay for international tuition, housing, etc.; then you are likely able to afford a nice car for them to drive around in.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#67

Post by mywittyname »

olyjohn wrote: post #57
zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

Eh... I worked at a community college whose bread and butter was international students. Lots of them had really expensive cars. Not sure why China would send hundreds of operatives to infiltrate a community college and then pay to put them in flashy cars. It's more likely just rich parents.

Even the ones driving 15 year old Chryslers likely have wealthy parents. University is absurdly expensive for international students of no particular note. On the order of $100k/yr in tuition for a no-name state school.

What's another $50k when you're spending half a million dollars to educate your kid?

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#68

Post by mlazos »

olyjohn wrote: post #57
zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

Eh... I worked at a community college whose bread and butter was international students. Lots of them had really expensive cars. Not sure why China would send hundreds of operatives to infiltrate a community college and then pay to put them in flashy cars. It's more likely just rich parents.

Yeah I want to add that at a lot of universities there isn’t much financial aid for international students. As a result only the richest families can afford to send their children here.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#69

Post by liamhawkins »

olyjohn wrote: post #57
zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

Eh... I worked at a community college whose bread and butter was international students. Lots of them had really expensive cars. Not sure why China would send hundreds of operatives to infiltrate a community college and then pay to put them in flashy cars. It's more likely just rich parents.

I think you missed the joke here

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#70

Post by [deleted] »

meowface wrote: post #31
IntronExon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the general principle you’re describing, it I’m unconvinced that it applies in this case. Do you see what I mean? How does this warning empower the public?

Perhaps if you're a researcher at a university and you get an interesting business offer out of the blue in exchange for access to something (maybe data you've gathered), you may be a bit more wary and consider if you're being manipulated by another government's intelligence service.

[deleted]
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