Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

mcclatchydc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 189 posts

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

#71

Post by THE_PUN_STOPS »

zengid wrote: post #50

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

Those cars are more expensive to purchase in China/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/etc then they are to purchase in the USA/Canada/etc and import later. Additionally, exotic cars tend to hold value well and are easy to sell for liquid assets.

Thus, for wealthy international families sending a student to North America, this is a two-birds-one-stone situation. The child gets a nice way to get around and the parents get a discount on their nice car when they bring it back. The car even doubles as a reasonably stable way to stash cash abroad in a stable asset.

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

#72

Post by txsh »

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.

Every country spies on every other country. But not every country steals foreign technology for its companies.

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

#74

Post by jxramos »

Larrikin wrote: post #5

I'm not sure I understand the argument of the article. Yes my graduate classes have many Chinese students in them, but why exactly is it bad that they are furthering their education and doing research in the US? The biggest issue I see is that many of them want to live and work in the US after graduation, but basically have to leave it up to luck in the visa lottery system.

It's been interesting observing that sentiment myself of Chinese friends that immigrate and integrate into the tech sectors of the US. Very much makes me think about the training data culled up to create the rogue chatbots that made the news last year: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/08/03/rogue-chatb...

Guess its a form of voting with your feet.

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

#75

Post by toephu2 »

mywittyname wrote: post #67
olyjohn wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What no-name state school cost $100k/yr for international students?

It is absurdly more expensive for int'l students but not $100k/yr.

For example UC Berkeley costs $45k/year for international students [1].

[1] https://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/current/ex...

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

#77

Post by RobertoG »

rdtsc wrote: post #56
IntronExon wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the phrase “McCarthyism” would be used instead.

Yap, agree, that's more appropriate perhaps. This whole "everything I don't agree with is racist" and anyone I don't agree with is a "nazi" is very easy to take too far. One one hand they have to be suspicious, because counterintelligence it's one of their duties. Especially after the OPM breach. On the other hand, there is a danger of them going overboard. This is a great example of that: http://www.latimes.com/loca…

There is a long tradition, specially by the CIA, of creating their next enemy while fighting the current one.

I'm thinking, for instance, in the freedom fighters against the Russian invasion in Afghanistan, Noriega, weaponization of Iraq against Iran... we could keep going.

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

#78

Post by ilaksh »

Personally I think some Mandarin should become compulsory in the US because I think basic lack of communication is the greatest security risk. The biggest problem to me is the Chinese suppression of dissent and overcentralization. And since there are so many Chinese people it seems almost inevitable that these tendencies will encroach upon or at least rub off on the US.

I assume at this point most universities realize any work they feel should be closed is not so if they have Chinese students involved.

I wonder if it might be possible to start requiring study of decentralization and free speech topics as general requirements for graduation.

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

#79

Post by BeetleB »

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'm torn.

On the one hand, I do think people should be aware of it. On the other hand, I don't see the fuss. What you describe is the norm for many groups - not just the Chinese.

>At Columbia a decade ago, the club mobilized students to protest a presentation about human rights violations in China, urging them to “resolutely defend the honor and dignity of the Motherland.”

This is normal for many groups and many issues. On my campus, any issue involving the Palestinians or Israelis would have lots of groups protesting and putting a fair amount of pressure to get the university to intercede and cancel the speaker. There was once suspicion that the Turkish government was trying to influence the views on their conflict with the Kurds. Many/most Turkish students in my time were on government scholarships, and I do know for a fact that they did ask students to spy on one another - and risk losing funding for their education if they did not get in line. For many international student organizations, it was considered normal to request for funding from their embassy to host events promoting their culture (including informational materials, videos, etc).

So yes, the Chinese are doing it, just as everyone else is. This is not even considered controversial on campuses. Religious groups do likewise. As do political groups. What's so special about the Chinese?

The article does a fairly poor job of describing of giving details/examples. What have these groups done that makes them stand out compared to the norm?

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

#80

Post by BeetleB »

allthenews wrote: post #17
Larrikin wrote: post #5

I'm not sure I understand the argument of the article. Yes my graduate classes have many Chinese students in them, but why exactly is it bad that they are furthering their education and doing research in the US? The biggest issue I see is that many of them want to live and work in the US after graduation, but basically have to leave it up to luck in the visa lottery system.

The FBI is not warning about students, but about government agents posing ad students, I.E. "operatives". Here, they have access to learn and potentially influence our culture from within. Most importantly, if the FBI is correct and they exist, they most likely do not have your interests in mind. That said, I don't know how one would deal with this without causing McCarthy style hysteria and sweeping up innocent stud…

>Here, they have access to learn and potentially influence our culture from within.

You say that as if it is some nefarious goal, when it is almost always the goal for all international student groups: Promoting their culture. It's not a hidden agenda - it is usually explicit.

As others have pointed out, for all the warnings, the article doesn't point out anything particularly bad that these groups on campus do.

Post reply on HN