America


Students From Elite China College Sent to Spy in U.S.


Sichuan University has been linked to Beijing’s nuke program and suspected cyberespionage.


W BY ALICE GIORDANO


hen dartmouth col- lege computer science doctoral student Xiao- tian Liu had his stu-


dent visa revoked, an outcry quick- ly followed from progressives and groups like the American Civil Liber- ties Union (ACLU) that the Trump administration had targeted an inno- cent nationalist just looking for a good education here in America. But is he? A look into Liu’s background


shows that he followed the same path into a major Ivy League college with advanced research as other Chinese nationalists linked to the Chinese Community Party (CCP). Like them, Liu garnered a student


visa after spending a little under a year as a research assistant at Sichuan Uni- versity, China’s public flagship school with a globally dubious reputation for spying on academic and military research in other countries. In fact, Sichuan University has


been on the U.S. watch list as a nation- al security threat since 2012, and remains there. It’s on the Entity List of the Bureau


of Industry and Security, a component of the U.S. Department of Commerce; the list identifies foreign individuals and entities that “pose a significant risk of being involved in activities con- trary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” The Chinese Defense University


Tracker, a global watchdog, also lists it as “high risk” for its perceived ties to


20 NEWSMAX | JULY 2025


the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military of the CCP, and close rela- tionship to China’s primary nuclear warheads research facility. “Sichuan University is designated


very high risk for its relationship to China’s nuclear weapons program, suspected links to cyberespionage, and moderate number of defense lab- oratories,” said the Australian Policy Institute, which maintains the univer- sity tracker. The House Select Committee on


the CCP has expressed concerns about Sichuan University’s interest in nuclear weapons development in the U.S. and its connection to Chinese


nationalists attending college here on student visas. Sichuan is also designated in the


China Uses Blackmail to Recruit Agents


C


hina’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS),


is now the largest and most active spy agency in the world, according to a report on CBS’ 60 Minutes. Jim Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat


whose direct experience with China’s intelligence agencies spans more than 30 years, said Beijing’s agents have infiltrated college campuses across the U.S. He corroborated a report in May


from The Stanford Review, which alleged that spies from the Chinese Communist Party are recruiting students at the California campus. Lewis told 60 Minutes that Chinese


intelligence agents coerce Chinese students by threatening to harm their family members back in China. “The ability to blackmail people


into being agents because of threats to their family is very powerful, and it’s a tool denied to the West,” he said. “But it’s a tool that the Chinese are not at all bashful about using.”


Bureau of Industry and Security’s records as an “alias” for the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons research. Among the research Liu is doing at Dartmouth, according to his Linked- In account, involves combinatorics, which is used in the development of nuclear technology including, accord- ing to nuclear scientists, “optimiz- ing reactor designs, analyzing com- plex systems, and predicting perfor- mance.” Liu is also studying highly advanced artificial intelligence appli- cations in chemical engineering at the New Hampshire college. In April, just days before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Liu’s student visa, the House CCP Committee announced it had asked several American universi- ties to provide information about Chi- nese students for “national security purposes.” Rep. John Moolenaar, commit-


tee chairman, said that some of the students have been directly linked to China’s military-industrial complex. “Each year, hundreds of thousands


of Chinese nationals study in the Unit- ed States, with some gaining access to cutting-edge research in fields such as artificial intelligence, quan- tum computing, semiconductors, and aerospace engineering,” the Michigan Republican warned. In late April, Liu resumed his stud-


ies at Dartmouth after a judge ordered his student visa be restored. Dartmouth issued a statement fol-


lowing the restoration of his visa, say- ing it was “committed to supporting” its international students.


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