By Daniel Nardini

Because of the corona virus epidemic that has badly affected the United States, U.S. intelligence agencies are now looking more carefully at the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is having on American academic institutions. That influence is considerable. The CCP has spent over U.S. $1 billion for providing grants, gifts, and other benefits and incentives to professors, university staff, and even programs for American students. A few months back, a Harvard University professor named Charles Lieber had been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for not disclosing that he had accepted money and other favors from the Chinese government. This may be only the tip of the iceberg in connection to what the Chinese Communist Party is doing to influence American academia.

Since 2013, the number of Chinese students to the U.S. had seen a three-fold increase in numbers. Many of these students had gone into study programs in scientific research or technological programs at most of America’s colleges and universities. We now know that China’s technological advances have grown considerably since the last decade. Coincidence? There can be no question that there seems to be coordination in the number of Chinese students going to programs for learning some of the best and most probably promising research in science, technology and chemistry. If most Chinese students went to learn about Shakespeare or Hemingway, then we all could probably care less. But this does not seem to be the case. The U.S. government is now examining how far Chinese Communist Party influence goes in everyday American academia. So far, what has been uncovered is pretty frightening.