Seamus Bruner, research director at the Government Accountability Institute, said on Newsmax that President Donald Trump’s statement about welcoming 600,000 students from China was probably made for negotiating purposes.
Bruner reacted to Trump’s statement by warning that Chinese students in the U.S. pose espionage and intellectual property theft risks. Under Chinese law, all Chinese citizens must assist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) if they are asked to do so. Chinese students studying abroad are particularly vulnerable because of family ties back home.
This raises concerns, especially in the STEM fields critical to US innovation. While some argue the policy supports U.S. colleges or trade negotiations with China, Bruner sees it as a dangerous misstep. He notes that CCP funding has already influenced universities like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, making them more sympathetic to communist ideologies. Bruner hopes this is merely a negotiating tactic by Trump but stresses the need to monitor the situation closely to protect national security.
GAI has previously reported in two books — Red Handed and Blood Money — on China’s espionage activities in the US.
