« First « Previous Comments 2 - 9 of 9 Search these comments
visiting Singapore on business
Uncovering Chinese Academic Espionage at Stanford
Garret Molloy and Elsa Johnson
May 7, 2025
This summer, a CCP agent impersonated a Stanford student. Under the alias Charles Chen, he approached several students through social media. Anna*, a Stanford student conducting sensitive research on China, began receiving unexpected messages from Charles Chen. At first, Charles's outreach seemed benign: he asked about networking opportunities. But soon, his messages took a strange turn.
Charles inquired whether Anna spoke Mandarin, then grew increasingly persistent and personal. He sent videos of Americans who had gained fame in China, encouraged Anna to visit Beijing, and offered to cover her travel expenses. He would send screenshots of a bank account balance to prove he could buy the plane tickets. Alarmingly, he referenced details about her that Anna had never disclosed to him.
He advised her to enter China for only 24 to 144 hours, short enough, he said, to avoid visa scrutiny by authorities, and urged her to communicate exclusively via the Chinese version of WeChat, a platform heavily monitored by the CCP. When Charles commented on one of her social media posts, asking her to delete screenshots of their conversations, she knew this was serious.
Under the guidance of experts familiar with espionage tactics, Anna contacted authorities. Their investigation revealed that Charles Chen had no affiliation with Stanford. Instead, he had posed as a Stanford student for years, slightly altering his name and persona online, targeting multiple students, nearly all of them women researching China-related topics. According to the experts on China who assisted Anna, Charles Chen was likely an agent of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), tasked with identifying sympathetic Stanford students and gathering intelligence.
« First « Previous Comments 2 - 9 of 9 Search these comments
Apple employee arrested by FBI for stealing self-driving car secrets
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/30/18203718/apple-self-driving-trade-secrets-china-titan
Professor failed to reveal he was also employed by Chinese State while getting Defense Dept. Grants. If they arrested him for this, there's almost certainly more to the story.
https://qz.com/1809851/tennessee-professor-charged-with-hiding-china-ties-from-nasa/
Raytheon employee arrested with missile secrets, lied that he was doing business in Philippines and Singapore, actually went to China.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-arrests-raytheon-engineer-for-taking-laptop-with-top-secret-us-missile-defense-secrets-to-china