Trump Cracks Down on China’s Spy Network in American Universities

It started with a handshake on a college campus. It ended with a suspected Chinese spy inside a U.S. Congressman’s inner circle.

The now-infamous case of Fang Fang the Chinese “student” who embedded herself into California politics and worked closely with Rep. Eric Swalwell wasn’t some one-off incident. It was a textbook example of Beijing’s quiet war on American sovereignty. And it all began with a student visa.

Under President Trump’s watch, those days are over.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a sweeping overhaul of U.S. visa policy to root out Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives posing as students. The policy includes:

• Revoking visas of Chinese nationals with known or suspected ties to the CCP.

• Tightened scrutiny on all visa applications from China and Hong Kong, especially in sensitive academic fields like AI, robotics, and advanced tech.

• Greater coordination between the State Department and Homeland Security to prevent future infiltration.

Rubio put it plainly: “The United States will no longer be Beijing’s doormat.”

It’s about time. During Joe Biden’s presidency, CCP infiltration metastasized across U.S. universities with zero real consequences. The Swalwell scandal exposed just how far the tentacles reach Fang Fang wasn’t just volunteering, she was bundling campaign donations and planting interns in his congressional office.

And she got in on a visa.

The FBI has sounded the alarm for years. In 2020, Director Chris Wray warned that over 2,500 active counterintelligence investigations were tied to China. Most of them? Focused on educational institutions.

The CCP’s methods are chillingly consistent:

• Enter the U.S. under student visas.

• Lead Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs), front groups often controlled by Beijing.

• Make inroads with young political leaders.

• Pass critical research and intel back to the mainland.

In fact, a Stanford report released this month uncovered a wide-reaching espionage network targeting students in fields like artificial intelligence and semiconductors all linked to China's United Front Work Department.

While Congress finally moved to restrict Confucius Institutes, CCP infiltration evolved. UC Berkeley, for example, took $220 million in hidden Chinese funding tied to its collaboration with Tsinghua University, a top Chinese military-linked institution. The Trump administration is now investigating.

And the rot is deeper than most think:

• U.S. colleges reported over $4 billion in known Chinese funding as of early 2025.

• An estimated $60 billion in foreign money has quietly entered American higher education over the past decade.

• Schools often fail to disclose where these funds go or what strings are attached.

What does the Biden administration have to say about it? Nothing. They turned a blind eye while the CCP weaponized our universities against us.

President Trump isn’t looking the other way. He’s putting America’s national security back on offense, scrapping the Obama-Biden playbook of appeasement and launching real, aggressive action.

Under his leadership, foreign agents masquerading as students will be flagged, blocked, and deported. Visa loopholes that allowed Chinese operatives to embed themselves in our academic and political institutions are being closed fast.

America’s future depends on securing its classrooms, labs, and legislative halls from foreign control. Trump’s visa overhaul is just the beginning.

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