Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky introduced a bill Friday (May 7) to provide resources to the FBI to combat what he calls “espionage” and “theft” by the Chinese Communist Party at U.S. universities. ” activities at U.S. universities. The bill would create 56 new FBI agent positions dedicated to investigating Communist Party espionage in education.
File photo: U.S. Rep. Barr, a Republican
Rep. Barr said in a tweet Friday that “the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘Thousand Talents Program’ steals federally funded research from higher education institutions across the United States. The CCP can’t compete with our top-notch institutions, so they use theft.”
“That’s why today, as part of the Republican Study Committee’s ‘China Week,’ I’m introducing legislation to staff the FBI with 56 new agents whose mission is to stop Chinese Communist and foreign espionage at our universities,” Barr went on to say.
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is the largest conservative caucus in the House of Representatives.
Fox News Channel reported earlier Friday that Barr was expected to introduce the legislation, called the Higher Education Research Protection Act of 2021, that day.
The FBI has an Office of Private Sector Affairs that investigates espionage at colleges and universities, but Rep. Barr’s office said the agency does not have enough resources for agents to focus on the issue.
Under the bill, the 56 new FBI agent positions under the Office of Private Sector Affairs are dedicated to investigating and carrying out this task and report directly to the assistant director of the FBI, who is responsible for “investigating and reporting to the director of the FBI any suspected incidents of individuals participating in federally funded research at institutions of higher education and national institutes as agents of foreign governments. incidents.”
The Act states that “foreign government” includes “the People’s Republic of China and any component thereof, including the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Military Commission, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the National People’s Congress, or the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. “
“The Chinese Communist Party’s ‘Thousand Talents Program’ to steal research from U.S. universities is a serious national security threat,” Barr told Fox News. “My proposal shows the Chinese Communist Party that the United States is serious about fighting this spying program and equipping the FBI with resources to get the Communist Party to stop stealing research from U.S. universities.”
The “Thousand Talents Program,” also known as the “Overseas High-Level Talent Introduction Program,” is a program organized and implemented by the Chinese Communist Party since December 2008. The program, which focuses on China’s strategic development goals and introduces high-level talents studying and working overseas, was promoted by Li Yuanchao, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of the Central Organization Department.
Many scientists were attracted to join the Thousand Talents Program by the generous remuneration offered by the program. Now, however, the program is under close scrutiny by U.S. judicial authorities. The Chinese Communist Party now rarely mentions the talent recruitment program and has removed the list of experts who participated in the program.
After the Trump administration’s Department of Justice established the China Action Plan in 2018, U.S. judicial authorities have stepped up their efforts to combat espionage and theft linked to the CCP, prosecuting a number of researchers and university professors involved in the Thousand Talents Program or sentencing.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the program is designed to attract overseas talent and foreign experts from China, “bring their knowledge and experience to China, and reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on April 14 on global threats to the United States that his agency opens an investigation into a case related to the Chinese Communist Party on average every 10 hours.
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