The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requested that six universities, including Stanford, release information about Chinese international students, writing that their involvement in STEM programs poses “national security risks.”
In a letter sent to University President Jonathan Levin ’94 on March 19, the committee requested a list of Chinese students’ previously attended universities, research affiliations, sources of tuition funding and current involvement in Stanford research and programs. It also requested a “country-by-country breakdown of applicants, admittances, and enrollments” at the University. The information is expected by April 1, 2025, the letter said.
In a statement released on March 20, the University wrote that it is carefully reviewing the letter, affirming its dual commitment to working with students from around the world and ensuring the “security and integrity of the research environment.”
The statement pointed out that the requested information is aggregate and not individual, and that the University will continue working to fulfill “legal obligations protecting individual student privacy.”
Citing the “significant tuition revenue generated by international students,” the House Select Committee said that the high admittance of Chinese nationals into advanced STEM programs indicates universities’ prioritization of financial incentives over national security.
The letter wrote that some Chinese national students gain access to sensitive technology via STEM programs at American universities, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, and that these students are a part of a “well-documented, systematic pipeline [established by the CCP] to embed researchers in leading U.S. institutions.”
The letter characterized the American student visa system as a “Trojan horse for Beijing,” adding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has raised concerns that “international students’ motives aren’t just to learn but to share that intelligence with foreign superpowers.”
The committee also cited a 2024 Harvard study that found that 15 to 20% of Chinese graduate students intended to return to China soon after graduation, and that 45 to 50% intended to temporarily stay in the U.S. or another Western country for short-term employment.
However, this study has not been formally reviewed or approved. Additionally, the letter did not include that the study also found that many Chinese students intend to return to China due to factors like the “unpredictability and restrictions” of U.S. visas, difficulty navigating U.S. healthcare and growing fear for their safety in the U.S. due to racially targeted crime and increasing U.S. crime rates.
Additional questions from the committee probed the University’s faculty ties to Chinese researchers and the presence of monitoring mechanisms that could track Chinese students’ “research with military or dual-use applications.”
The March 19 letter was also sent to Purdue University, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland, the University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University.