A recent oversight
report highlighted significant worries that some of America’s most elite
colleges and labs have been “infiltrated” by Chinese academics who are
affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s infamous “Thousand Talents
Program” which has historically been used to steal U.S. technological
and scientific know-how for the benefit of China.
A conservative non-profit watchdog group, the American Accountability Foundation,
reported that it found nearly two dozen Chinese academics working at
elite U.S. schools and labs “who because of the dual-use threat of their
research, close ties to the military research sector in China, and/or
clear ties to the Chinese Communist Party should be expelled from the
United States or never be re-admitted."
Multiple Chinese students with links to the CCP’s "talents
programs" — the most prominent of which is the Thousand Talents —
appeared in the AAF report as attending top U.S. colleges.
The Chinese government’s since-deleted website
for its Thousand Talents Program said its leadership working group was
“composed of” the Central Committee of the CCP, the Ministry of
Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, among other Chinese entities, all showing the CCP’s
control over the program.
U.S. taxpayers funding projects that pose security risks to U.S.
The new AAF research document — titled "Chinese Scientist Infiltration Threat Assessments" — says
that Chinese students working at some of America’s top colleges, often
receiving U.S. federal funding (some of it from the Pentagon) to conduct
research into advanced technologies have troubling backgrounds which
could pose a risk to U.S. national security.
The American universities in question, which have brought
on Chinese scientists with ties to the Thousand Talents Program —
Cornell University, Purdue University, Penn State University, the
University of Wisconsin, and Carnegie Mellon — did not respond to
emailed requests for comment from Just the News. None of the Chinese academics responded to requests for comment either.
Xi calls CCP’s Thousand Talents Program part of United Front "magic weapon"
The Thousand Talents Program was also explicitly named as being part of the United Front Work Department by the program’s since-defunct website. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that “the United Front is an important magic weapon for the party to defeat the enemy.”
The DOJ in 2020 stated
that “China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent
Chinese talent recruitment plans that are designed to attract, recruit,
and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s
scientific development, economic prosperity and national security” and
that “these talent programs seek to lure Chinese overseas talent and
foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China and
reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.”
Harvard professor Charles Lieber, who was found guilty in December 2021 on federal charges related to concealing his ties
to the Wuhan University of Technology and the Chinese government’s
Thousand Talents Program while receiving U.S. government funding. Lieber
was sentenced to time served, along with two years of supervised
release with six months of home confinement. The former Harvard
professor went on to join Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in 2025.
The House Select Committee on the CCP warned
in its “CCP on the Quad” report in 2024 that “China’s Thousand Talents
Plan is well known, but it is just one of hundreds of talent programs
developed by the PRC to acquire cutting-edge technology and knowledge
from abroad.”
“Talent recruitment is also a critical ingredient of the
CCP’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy—a plan to redirect ostensibly
civilian research into military applications. Military-Civil Fusion is a
foundational component of Xi’s ongoing effort to transform the People’s
Liberation Army into a ‘world-class military’ by 2049,” the House
committee warned. “It includes a strategy to aggressively acquire
intellectual property, leverage research in cutting edge technology from
private industry, and systematically reorganize the PRC science and
technology enterprise to advance military and other national strategic
objectives.”
The AAF report also showed that a Chinese scientist had
links to the CCP’s similarly named and closely linked Hundred Talents
Program.
The Justice Department in 2020 charged
Zhengdong Cheng, a Chinese national, for allegedly seeking to defraud
NASA and “leverage NASA grant resources to further the research of
Chinese institutions.” The DOJ specifically said the Chinese defendant
“participated in the PRC’s Hundred Talents Plan.”
The DOJ added: “The Chinese Talent Plans are programs
established by the Chinese government to recruit individuals with access
to or knowledge of foreign technology or intellectual property. Through
these plans the Chinese government has created a significant financial
incentive for foreign, talented individuals to transfer international
technology and intellectual property to China, licitly or otherwise.”
Cheng entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ and was sentenced to time served.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said
in 2020 that the Hundred Talents Program was established by the Chinese
Academy of Sciences in 1994, and highlighted “the program’s role in
facilitating the eventual return of science and technology expertise to
China.”
Military-civil fusion projects
The commission said that “the Hundred Talents Program seeks
to attract researchers who can contribute to projects furthering
military-civil fusion” and that a 2019 guidebook by the Chinese Academy
of Sciences about the Hundred Talents Program “noted that priority
funding would be available to researchers whose work concerned core
technologies associated with China’s strategic priorities like deep
space, deep sea, and military-civil fusion.”
The White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing said
in 2018 that “China’s talent recruitment strategically complements
China’s efforts to target emerging high technology industries” and that
the CCP programs “include the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Hundred
Talents Plan.”
The Pentagon’s red flag list warning
about “Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs that Pose a Threat to
National Security Interests” specifically notes both the “Thousand
Talents Plan” and “Hundred Talents Plan” among other Chinese government
talent programs.
The new report by AAF also pointed out that a Chinese
student who had been here in the U.S. had a prior membership in the
CCP’s “Chunhui Program.”
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said
in 2020 that “China’s government runs myriad programs to bring Chinese
students and scholars living in the United States back to China
temporarily to engage in scientific activities relevant to its economic
and military modernization” and that “one prominent program” — the
Chunhui Program — “targets high-profile Chinese scholars appointed to
teaching positions at prominent universities.”
Yet another Chinese scientist working at an American
university had been mentored by the now-former director of Chinese
National Office of the Recruitment Program of Global Experts, the AAF
report showed. This appears to be just another name for the Thousand Talents Program.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee assessed
in 2019 that “the Chinese government has refined its centrally
organized foreign talent recruitment plans into a strategy to ‘use
talent to strengthen the country’ by targeting the specific technology
sectors” and said that the “Recruitment Program of Global Experts” was
another name for the Thousand Talents Program.
From Thousand Talents member to Hundred Talents leader — with stint in U.S. in between
The AAF report alleged that “Dr. Yu Zhao posed a high
national security risk because his research advances precision
biological payload delivery systems that are widely recognized as
strategically sensitive” and argued that “this risk is no longer
theoretical: Zhao has returned to China and accepted a postdoctoral
position under Zhejiang University’s Hundred Talents Program,
effectively placing U.S.-derived expertise inside a PRC system designed
to absorb and operationalize advanced foreign research.”
Zhao’s LinkedIn profile and Google Scholar page
both say he was very recently at Cornell University but that he has
since returned to China to work at Zhejiang University. Cornell until recently said Zhao was a postdoctoral associate there, now listing him as a “former member” of the Jiang Lab at Cornell, which says it is “Focusing on Biomaterials and Drug Delivery.”
Zhejiang now lists Zhao as a “Doctoral Supervisor” and “Hundred Talents Program Researcher” at the school’s College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Zhao’s current role as a Hundred Talents leader should come
as little shock — while studying at a Chinese university years ago, he conducted research funded in part by the “Thousand Talents Program for Young Professionals.”
Neither Zhao nor Cornell responded to a request for comment.
Zhao had also previously worked on research projects funded in part by the National Key Research Development Programs of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Work on biological agents
Zhejiang University now says that Zhao is focused on “precision nano-hybrid biological agents” and “smart nano-vaccines” research there.
The House select committee on the CCP warned
in 2025 that “Zhejiang University is not just any Chinese academic
institution — it is co-administered by SASTIND, holds classified PRC
research credentials, and operates several defense laboratories. It has a
documented history of involvement in Military-Civil Fusion projects and
has conducted cybersecurity research funded by the Ministry of State
Security — China’s internal security and intelligence agency.”
Zhao’s Google Scholar and LinkedIn pages say that he received his PhD at Nankai University prior to his time at Cornell.
Nature Magazine assessed
that Nankai University was among “the leading collaborators with
People's Liberation Army” and among the “top five domestic collaborators
with People's Liberation Army” — the Chinese Academy of Sciences was
number one, Peking University was number two, and Nankai University was
number three.
“Zhao’s move to Zhejiang University through the Hundred
Talents Program, combined with his prior funding from Chinese national
science agencies, places him directly within China’s military-civil
fusion ecosystem, where such technologies are actively leveraged for
state objectives,” the AAF report argued. “His skill set would
materially strengthen China’s ability to develop next-generation genetic
delivery systems at scale—capabilities the U.S. government explicitly
identifies as critical to national security, making the risk of
strategic technology transfer both credible and significant.”
Leader of CCP’s “Spring Sunshine” effort allowed to work at advanced U.S. lab
The report by AAF argued that “Peihao Geng’s involvement
with the Los Alamos Laboratory, coupled with his current association
with a SASTIND-affiliated University, and his role in Chinese overseas
recruitment programs, is highly significant from a national security
perspective.”
Geng’s online bio says that he is an assistant research professor at Penn State, and the Penn State website lists Geng as an “research associate alumni” at the school’s Materials Processing and Characterization Laboratory. This lab focuses on “thermodynamics and kinetics in materials modeling.” Geng’s research profile says he left Penn State in 2025.
Geng’s profile at the Chinese university says
he was an “overseas project leader” for the Chinese Ministry of
Education’s Chunhui Program — translated as the “Spring Sunshine”
program.
Neither Geng nor Penn State responded to a request for comment.
The National Academies wrote
that “the Spring Light Program, which brought Chinese researchers
educated abroad back to visit China following the Tiananmen Square
protests and massacre in 1989, became Ministry of Education policy in
1996.” The National Academies said that “the Chinese government and the
CCP established and expanded part-time programs for overseas scholars
once it became apparent that these would be more attractive than
full-time programs” — leading to the Thousand Talents Program.
The House Select Committee on the CCP said
in 2025 that the Chinhui Plan “emphasizes leveraging overseas expertise
to support the technological transformation and upgrading of large and
medium-sized state-owned enterprises — entities that often serve as
pillars of China’s strategic industrial base and are closely tied to
national defense, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing sectors.”
The committee said “this objective underscores the Chunhui
Plan’s role in accelerating domestic innovation through the targeted
acquisition and application of foreign-developed technologies.”
Geng now appears to currently be an associate professor at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The chairman of the House CCP committee said in
2024 that “Shanghai Jiao Tong University has helped drive China’s
military modernization and intelligence capabilities, including by
contributing to the development of nuclear weapons, carrier rockets,
nuclear submarines, and fighter jets.”
Bill Evanina, the former head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, warned in 2025 that the Chinese school “has historically been tied to the CCP's intelligence and cyber hacking programs.”
Geng’s research involves advanced practical applications for machine learning.
Penn State touted Geng’s AI research work in 2025, noting it had been funded by the NSF and Energy Department.
Some of Geng’s work
at Penn State “was conducted in part at the Center for Integrated
Nanotechnologies, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User
Facility” with the project noting that “Los Alamos National Laboratory”
operates under an Energy Department contract.
One research project in 2025 on large language models was worked on by Geng and by Penn State professor Jingjing Li through the Penn State lab.
Jingjing Li still helps lead the Penn State lab. Prior versions of her Penn State biography noted that she had graduated from both Beihang University and Tsinghua University.
Li’s research appears to have been funded
in part by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science
Foundation, among others. Jingjing Li did not respond to a request for
comment.
Beihang has been dubbed one of the “Seven Sons of National Defense” by the CCP. The House select committee on the CCP describes
the Seven Sons as “leading universities with deep roots in military and
defense industry, subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology” and that the ministry “drives the Party’s
Military-Civil Fusion strategy and the integration of civilian
industries and cutting-edge technologies into the PRC’s military and
security ecosystems.”
The House CCP committee warned
in 2025 that Beihang University “adheres to the principle of educating
talents for the Party and the nation” and “is guided by the Party’s
leadership” while Beihang “emphasizes the central role of the Party's
political construction and adheres to Xi Jinping Thought.”
Beihang has been blacklisted by the Pentagon and the Commerce Department for many years.
The House Select Committee on China noted
in 2024 that Tsinghua is “co-supervised by the State Administration for
Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, an arm of the
Chinese government … which seeks to leverage these universities for
defense purposes.”
The committee also said that Tsinghua “has a documented
history of serving the PRC’s national security and defense apparatus,
including involvement in defense research and alleged cyberattacks
targeting various international entities.”
The AAF report assessed that “Geng’s research, with
dual-use and defense applications, is funded by various military and
federal agencies. These facts, along with his association with Shanghai
Jiao Tong University, a high-risk institution in China, and China’s
overseas scientist recruitment program, raise serious national security
concerns.”
Cutting edge researcher previously funded by the Thousand Talents Program
The report by AAF warned that Zebin Li at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison “is working on next-gen semiconductors and was a
participant in China’s notorious Thousand Talents program focused on
recruiting overseas scientific talent for the CCP.”
Li’s prior research received support from
the CCP’s Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas
Chinese Scholars and the Thousand Talents Program, as well as from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Ministry of Science and
Technology, the Chinese Ministry of Education, the National Science
Foundation of China, and the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing
Municipality.
The Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars appears to be a progenitor of the Thousand Talents Program that was established by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
The National Academies has said
that the Recruitment Program of Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars and
the Supporting Scheme for Returned Overseas Chinese Students’
Entrepreneurial Start-ups are amongst “Foreign Talent Programs That May
Pose a Threat to the National Security Interests of the United States.”
Li’s Google Scholar page and LinkedIn page say that
he is currently a postdoc researcher at the University of Wisconsin,
focused on “data analytics for material science and advanced
manufacturing.”
Neither Li nor the University of Wisconsin responded to a request for comment.
Li
also attended the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems
through the Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as Sichuan University.
The House select committee on the CCP in 2024 said the Beijing Institute is a “problematic Chinese institution” and assessed in 2025 that Sichuan University is a “SASTIND-affiliated University.”
Li is currently listed
as a postdoctoral researcher at the Mesoscale Computational Modeling
Research Group at Wisconsin, and Li’s work at the school receives both
U.S. federal funding and Chinese government funding.
“Dr. Li has participated in one of China’s talent programs
which are notorious for espionage and intellectual property theft
activities,” the AAF argued. “The U.S. cannot allow a high-risk
researcher like Dr. Li into the country.”
“Director of Chinese National Office of the Recruitment Program of Global Experts” as a mentor
The report by AAF described Ge Chen as “a Purdue electrical
engineering postdoc working on electrical grid technologies whose
mentor is a leading CCP official in China and has ties to their defense
industry.”
Chen’s GitHub page says that he is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University. His profile also says
that “he completed his PhD in Electric and Computer Engineering in 2023
at the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City,
University of Macau, under the supervision of Prof. Yonghua Song.”
Chen’s named mentor at the Chinese state-run lab — Yonghua Song — had been
the “Director of Chinese National Office of the Recruitment Program of
Global Experts” according to his biography at the University of Macau,
where he is the “rector.”
Song did not respond to a request for comment.
Another biography
specifically says that the Chinese recruitment program led by Song was
the Thousand Talents Program. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations also said that the name of the recruitment program led by Song is interchangeable with the Thousand Talents Program.
Song “submitted a letter to President Xi Jinping” in 2018, according to the University of Macau, and the university blared
that “we’ve received a letter from President Xi!” The university said
that Xi replied to Song’s letter “with important instructions through
the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China.” Song also won a “State Scientific and Technological Progress Award” in 2020 at an award ceremony attended by Xi.
As for the University of Macau itself — which Chen attended under the mentorship of Song — the school has repeatedly touted its role in the CCP’s Thousand Talents Program.
Chen’s biography also says that he received degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
The House select committee on the CCP assessed
in 2025 that Xi’an Jiaotong is “co-administered by the State
Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National
Defense” and that “SASTIND plays a critical role in managing China’s
defense R&D outside the PLA, coordinating weapons development,
setting technical standards for defense industries, and integrating
efforts across provincial and national levels.”
Bethany Allen, ASPI’s head of China investigations and analysis, warned
last year about the troubling joint venture between Xi’an Jiaotong
University in China and Liverpool University in Britain, with ASPI
saying the “findings raise serious questions about research
collaboration into sensitive technologies, including those with military
applications.”
Allen said that Xi’an Jiaotong is “a leading Chinese defence university that has supplied the Rocket Force of the People’s Liberation Army and is supervised by China’s defence-industry ministry.”
The House CCP committee has also said that Huazhong is a “SASTIND-affiliated University” as well.
The Pentagon has placed
the “Defense S&T Key Laboratory of Multi-spectral Information
Processing Technology” at Huazhong University on its “list of foreign
institutions engaging in problematic activity” as part of the Defense
Department’s “important continuing effort in highlighting and countering
mechanisms of unwanted technology transfer to foreign countries of
concern.”
Chen’s GitHub page says Chen is a “Postdoctoral Research Associate” at Purdue who is “working with Prof. Junjie Qin.”
Qin’s webpage at Purdue says that he is an assistant professor at Purdue’s school of electrical and chemical engineering, and that “I am also affiliated with” the Center
for Innovation in Control, Optimization, and Networks” and with the
“Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway
Electrification” — the latter of which is backed by the NSF.
Qin himself attended Tsinghua University. The House Select Committee on the CCP also warned about Tsinghua in a 2024 report. Neither Chen, Purdue, nor Qin responded to requests for comment.
The Purdue electrical and chemical engineering school where Chen works and which Qin helps lead counts among its partners
such U.S. government funders as Naval Sea Systems Command, the Naval
Surface Warfare Center, Sandia National Laboratories, and others.
The AAF report said that “Chen’s prior history with Chinese
defense/intelligence gathering universities, as well as his mentor’s
relationship with the CCP made him a high-risk U.S. visa holder” and
that he “should never have been allowed access into the country.”
CCP member used U.S. college perch for Hong Kong recruitment
Just the News also previously reported on how Jingao Xu, an expert in drone research technology at Carnegie Mellon University, previously helped lead the CCP chapter on his campus at Tsinghua University in China.
Xu also used his perch
at Carnegie Mellon to engage in recruitment efforts seemingly similar
to those carried out by members of the Thousand Talents Program, with
the Chinese scientist using his U.S. university spot to recruit PhD students to work at Hong Kong University.
“I’m joining the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering at the University of Hong Kong as a tenure-track Assistant
Professor, starting in Spring 2026. I’m actively seeking highly
motivated students to join our group at HKU,” Xu wrote.
Neither Xu nor Carnegie Mellon responded to requests for comment.
The Chinese scientist also said in his recruitment pitch
that his followers would seek to answer “how can cutting-edge CV/AI
advances empower running robots, flying drones, and soaring satellites
(NOT just excel on datasets or in simulators)?”
“Note to Prospective Students. Thanks for your interest to join my group,” Xu also wrote
in his effort to recruit students to come to Hong Kong. “Our group will
work on building mobile systems, with a long-term focus on exploring
how cutting-edge CV/AI advances can empower running robots, flying
drones, and soaring satellites to operate in the real world, NOT just
excel on datasets.”
FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News
on Friday that “this FBI, under this leadership, has prioritized the
threat against it by the CCP against us, and we've taken swift action.”
It remains to be seen to what extent the bureau’s anti-CCP crackdown
will extend to U.S. colleges and universities.
