Chen Song, a former visiting scholar from mainland China at Stanford University, was originally charged with “visa fraud” by the United States. A federal grand jury on Friday (19) added charges of “obstruction of justice,” “destruction of documents” and “concealing the identity of a communist soldier and making false statements” while in the United States. The trial is scheduled to begin on April 12. The prosecution said that if the evidence is conclusive, Song’s conviction could protect American universities from interference by illegal foreign forces.
The charge sheet alleges that Song, 39, was already a secret member of the Chinese Communist Party military when he was researching at Stanford in December 2018. In a U.S. Department of Justice press release, Northern District of California Attorney David L. Anderson said, “Fearing revelation, Song Sum destroyed relevant documents in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal her identity.”
The FBI investigation found that Sam Song actively destroyed evidence of her Communist ties, including her possession of a Communist identification in which she wore a Communist uniform, and that she deleted emails that could have led to her conviction after she was first charged. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that it is important to ensure that academic institutions in the Bay Area on the U.S. West Coast are not subject to deliberate and reckless concealment of identity by members of the Communist Army, who then enter the U.S. for research and development. Authorities said they will exhaust all investigative methods and measures to safeguard U.S. universities.
Alan Kohler, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, said in the indictment that “members of the Communist Party cannot make false statements on visa applications and should not assume that the FBI and its partners will not arrest them.” He also said that “the Chinese Communist authorities have repeatedly stolen U.S. research, used our universities, and failed to follow international norms.”
In July 2020, Song was indicted by the FBI for “visa fraud” after she allegedly lied to U.S. immigration officials to conceal her Communist military background.
According to the indictment, Song indicated on her visa application that she served in the Communist Army from September 2000 to June 2011 and that her employer was the private West Diaoyutai Hospital in Beijing, but FBI agents discovered that Song’s actual employer was the General Hospital of the Communist Air Force in Beijing. If Song Chen had indicated from the outset that she was serving with a military unit, she would have had to apply for a diplomatic visa officially approved by a U.S. consulate.
In July 2020, at least three academics with Communist military backgrounds, including Song, were charged by Washington with “visa fraud” for concealing their backgrounds as working for the Communist military. If convicted of “visa fraud,” Song faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and if convicted of “tampering with evidence,” he could face up to 20 years in prison. In addition, a conviction for “false statements” carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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