Gang Chen is a professor at MIT. I use the present tense because he’s still employed at MIT notwithstanding being charged today with multiple federal felonies in relation to wiring fraud and lying on tax returns. He’s a naturalized citizen born in China, but he’s been working for the PRC since at least 2012 (and likely since well before arriving in the USA)

The criminal complaint is pretty anodyne. It doesn’t really reflect what he did as a side gig. He’s a Chinese spy. Not a 007 type of spy, rather a guy who came to the US, became a citizen, and then fed US technology to China.

In the complaint, the DOJ alleges that he failed to inform the IRS that he was making money via “advice and expertise” sometimes directly to the People’s Republic of China. He’s also done well via Uncle Sam, raking in about 9 million in research grants.

Chen wrote an email to himself in which he spoke of helping China:

“Our economy is no 2, but from technology (structure of economy) and human resources, we far from no 2.”

The “our economy” isn’t the USA, it’s Chen’s handlers in China. Chen is not alone.

The FBI has visited over 70 universities about the “potential” of Chinese spies on campus. The FBI has a lengthy unclassified list of potential threats. If there’s a public list, imagine how long the classified list is.

The U.S. colleges have been flooded with Chinese students for years. A lot, (and it might be most) have two majors – Spying and whatever they are studying here. If they stay, many are Gang Chens and funnel technology to the PRC. Although university presidents expressed skepticism over the FBI’s fears there is no doubt that American universities are hosts to a large number of Chinese students who are majoring in spying.

Ji Chaoqun was a student at Illinois Institute of Technology, a private school near the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. He was also, according to the Dept of Justice, working as a Chinese spy.

China exports tons of junk to America. We consume their exports and buy their junk, often made with forced labor at handsome profits.  But China’s most successful export is sending its citizens to American universities with the intent of getting BS degrees. Bachelors in Spying.