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Twenty-two higher education associations and rights groups today (August 12) released a statement in response to an NPR report earlier this summer about a push by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Institutes of Health, and other government officials to monitor certain Chinese scholars working at US universities.
“This move seemingly stems from growing suspicion that the Chinese government is engaged in espionage of American higher education, with the aim of stealing data and intellectual property,” reads the statement, whose signatories include the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). “However, this is an area where the government must tread carefully.”
The statement goes on to acknowledge that the concern about Chinese espionage likely has some validity, citing a Newsweek story about an electrical engineer at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was recently found guilty of attempting to send US military electronics to China. ...
