‘At a time when China is escalating its attacks on our republic and the rest of the free world, the risks of not acting to restrict these associations far outweigh the benefits.’
Erik Durneika Opinion Editor
China is aggressively expanding its influence operations across the United States, with higher education acting as a major conduit for such malign activity. Most attention has been focused on U.S. universities accepting Chinese funding and China-linked researchers receiving taxpayer money. However, there’s another aspect of Chinese infiltration that deserves more attention: Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs).
There are 150 CSSA chapters at colleges and universities across the country. Though they appear to be harmless cultural groups at first glance, these organizations play a central role in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) united front work, which aims to monitor Chinese students abroad, stifle any form of opposition to the regime, and co-opt individuals who aren’t affiliated with the party.
CSSA constitutions, websites, and members reveal that Chinese consulates supervise and provide direct support to these groups. For example, the University of Connecticut CSSA chapter’s website says that it is an “official Chinese association supported by the Consulate General of the P.R. China in New York,” while the University of Michigan CSSA’s constitution states that it is accredited by the Chinese consulate in Chicago.
And in a Chinese social media post that has since been deleted, the University of Pittsburgh’s CSSA apparently admitted to receiving $6,000 per year from the Chinese consulate. These associations are doing as much as possible to obfuscate their ties to the CCP.
So, what’s at stake? First, and perhaps most immediately apparent, academic freedom and free speech.
There are countless instances of CSSAs censoring and intimidating students, researchers, and groups that challenge Beijing’s propaganda machine — a CSSA member assaulting an anti-CCP student protester at a Harvard University event, Columbia University canceling a human rights panel after CSSA backlash, a group of Chinese students disrupting a Brandeis University virtual event, and Chinese students taunting an Uyghur student speaker at Cornell University.
This type of behavior is a direct assault on our national sovereignty and seeks to create an environment of fear, all while pushing Beijing’s narrative. But I’d expect nothing less from America’s top adversary that operates in the gray zone, below the threshold of armed conflict.
These groups also pose a threat to U.S. national security. They act as another channel through which Beijing can recruit and mobilize Chinese nationals to steal intellectual property and sensitive information to aid its military buildup, which has accelerated in recent years. Intellectual property theft costs the U.S. economy anywhere from $400 billion to $600 billion per year, with China being the primary offender.
The response from American higher education to Chinese malfeasance through these associations has been abysmal and outright infuriating.
Columbia University suspended its CSSA branch in 2015 due to financial and student policy violations, only to reinstate the group’s club status not long after.
And at Harvard University, the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct placed three anti-CCP undergraduate protestors on disciplinary probation and sent the CSSA-affiliated student who forcibly removed one of the protestors from the event an apology letter.
Caving to CSSAs’ demands to cancel events that the CCP considers sensitive counts as compliance. It serves only to legitimize these groups.
Given American academia’s lack of interest in addressing this issue, it’s time for the Trump administration to take action. The next best thing to banning these associations would be for the U.S. Department of State to label them as foreign missions under the Foreign Missions Act, coupled with aggressive enforcement. Such a designation is deserved considering CSSAs’ sources of funding and the manner in which they operate.
A foreign mission label would require chapters to receive official government approval for public events and to disclose information about financial transactions and personnel. In other words, CSSAs would be put under the federal microscope.
For too long, foreign adversaries have exploited the openness of American higher education. CSSAs are merely one part of the CCP problem on campuses across the country, but they’re an important one. At a time when China is escalating its attacks on our republic and the rest of the free world, the risks of not acting to restrict these associations far outweigh the benefits.
Washington must rise to the occasion as colleges and universities choose to look the other way.