If you want an example of how big of a problem Chinese espionage is, you needn't look any further than the warnings that Canada and the United States have been throwing at corporations and governmental organizations about the use of gear built by tech companies with ties to the Chinese government.
Apparently, the issue extends beyond the use of smartphones and cellular networking hardware built by Huawei and ZTE: the US Government is thinking about conducting deep background checks on Chinese nationals coming to the United States in pursuit of their education. Spies! They're everywhere!
From IntelNews.Org:
…the Trump administration is reportedly considering the possibility of imposing deeper background checks and additional vetting on all Chinese nationals wishing to study in the US. Citing "a US official and three congressional and university sources", Reuters said on Thursday that the measures would apply to all Chinese students wishing to register in undergraduate and graduate academic programs in the US. The news agency quoted a "senior US official" as saying that "no Chinese student who's coming [to the US] is untethered from the state […. They all have] to go through a party and government approval process". Reuters reported that the proposed plan includes a comprehensive examination of the applicants' phone records and their presence on social media platforms. The goal would be to verify that the applicants are not connected with Chinese government agencies. As part of the proposed plan, US law enforcement and intelligence agencies would provide counterintelligence training to university officials.
The big question is whether this additional vetting is warranted or if it's just another way to keep foreign nationals that the Trump Administration doesn't fancy out of the United States. The smaller question: how much money would the loss of the thousands of Chinese students who look to American universities each year translate into? Would universities rally against the federal government to bring the ban to a halt?
