Incidents involving Chinese international students in prohibited or sensitive areas could be “politicised” ahead of key elections, a security analyst has warned.
It comes as five Chinese students in the US were charged with misleading investigators and clearing images from their phones after being found on a military site in Michigan.
The men, who were students at the University of Michigan, were reportedly seen after midnight at Camp Grayling. One of them later claimed to be stargazing. Authorities found images of two military vehicles taken on the same night on one of the men’s external hard drives. It was unclear where the men, who have since graduated, are now.
“Based on the indictment, none of the five students are still in the United States, so the likelihood of their arrest and extradition to face these charges is highly unlikely,” said Javid Ali, an associate professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on national security.
This was not the first time Chinese international students have been connected to sensitive areas. Earlier this year, a Chinese student pleaded guilty to flying a drone near a US naval base, while in South Korea, police questioned three Chinese students who flew a drone over a US aircraft carrier.
Security forces in various countries have highlighted the risks that academic links can pose to national security. In 2019, the FBI warned that, while most international students pose no risk, the Chinese government “uses some Chinese students…to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property”.
However, Dr Ali said it remained unclear whether the recent incidents relating to military bases would lead to a “heightened focus on Chinese students”.
“Separate from these charges against the five former students, there is a deeper pattern of actual espionage operations conducted by Chinese government intelligence officers or assets they have cultivated here, but it is still too early to draw a firm connection about their activity and this broader trend,” he said.
In some cases, Chinese students also face suspicion for being in the vicinity of sensitive areas, even where there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
In the Netherlands, the president of Eindhoven University of Technology, Robert-Jan Smits, told press in July that he had been questioned by the US ambassador about the university’s large cohort of Chinese students. The university is in close proximity to the headquarters of a major semiconductor company, with which it also collaborates.
Similarly, in April, Filipino universities were forced to defend their Chinese students after politicians called for an investigation into the “influx” of Chinese nationals in a region adjacent to Taiwan.
Representatives from universities in the area said the accusations were “not only baseless but also deeply offensive”.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo, president of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies, said that as bilateral relations between China and other countries worsen, educational exchanges “can suffer collateral damage”.
“The presence of Chinese students, especially in a front-line province hosting two sites for US military access facing Taiwan, can easily be politicised and securitised,” he said, adding that no solid cases of espionage had been brought against Chinese nationals in the country.
He said midterm elections in the Philippines, scheduled for 2025, “can put even normal people-to-people ties on the line as politicians use anything associated with China, from investments, tourists, and now students, to score political gain”.
