Posted on 06/26/2019 12:29:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s president has accused the US government of creating “a toxic atmosphere” for academics of Chinese descent in its efforts to prevent Beijing from acquiring advanced American technology.
“I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches,” L. Rafael Reif said in a letter to the school’s faculty, students, staff and alumni.
“But we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear. Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule.
“Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinised, stigmatised and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone,” Reif wrote.
MIT was one of many American universities to end funding ties with Chinese telecoms equipment makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE, citing the risks that such arrangements might cause in the light of US federal investigations of the two companies.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
He’s on the take.
The Chinese will steal everything technology worth stealing.
Stealing is what Communists do best.
A an ignorant buffoon.
Here’s the truth:
Chinese students pay at least 3x the rate of an American student.
They are money buckets.
And, admissions, faculty and administration accept very generous gifts from Chinese sources.
For the Chinese it’s cheaper than their own research.
The Chinese phone companies will discover I can bore a woman beyond endurance in less than 30 minutes.
I don’t expect any tech device to be very secure.
I only buy stuff online when my checking account balance would be less than a few hundred dollars after making the purchase.
I’m sure Google is better at spying than Chinese intelligence.
RE: He’s on the take.
I have to disagree with this ( unless we have good evidence to say otherwise ).
MIT has been very cooperative with the US government vis a vis, Huawei and ZTE.
The issue is not black and white ( e.g. — racism against Chinese simply because of ethnicity).
This is a TOUGH problem to crack, requiring vigilance and unfortunately acknowledging that the Chinese Communist government is bent on stealing our most sensitive research for their own use.
There ARE Chinese academics whose motives are nothing more than love of science and desire to see progress in say, the medical field so that diseases can be treated/cured.
Unfortunately, we cannot be so naive as to believe that there are no industrial spies in our midst. For that, we MUST BE VIGILANT.
This vigilance of course, will unfortunately involve the many who are innocent because of the few who are guilty.
Chinese immigrants, students, illegals, whatever, must be assumed to be tech spies if they have family in China. The safety and Social Credit scores of their families back home must be safeguarded. That is even more important than the dollars sent to those families.
RE: Chinese immigrants, students, illegals, whatever, must be assumed to be tech spies if they have family in China.
Let’s say we make that assumption, that all of them are tech spies ( even those who are not ), what policy to we make? Do we ask everyone of them to go home and leave their work behind? Even the ones on the verge of medical breakthroughs?
Some are willing...*enthusiastic*...spies. Some are reluctant...unwilling...spies.
How does one become an unwilling spy? Simple! "Comrade,we hear you're going to the US to study/visit family/work/etc" says the Chinese government official."We want you to spy while there...for the Revolution"."Gee,Comrade,I don't have any interest in doing such a thing" says the citizen.
"Comrade,we know where your family lives" snarles the government official.
If it wasn’t for Chinese and other foreign science and engineering grad students, there wouldn’t be any grad students.
RE: I’d bet the clothes on my back that *every* Chinese citizen in the United States is a spy of some sort.Some are military spies...some are economic spies.
Sorry, I have to disagree with the word *every*.
I’ve worked with too many of them to know that this is patently UNTRUE.
I am not advocating for us to be careless because I acknowledge that industrial spies DO EXIST. But to tar and feather every single Chinese simply because they came from a country whose government we are suspicious of is unwarranted.
The government of The PRC is a police state. They in reality own everything and allow their citizens to have things but it is always subject to confiscation by the state. This means that all citizens of the PRC must be assumed to be agents of the state in either an active or passive mode. That is just the cold hard facts.
First thought also. He needs to be investigated.
RE: If it wasn’t for Chinese and other foreign science and engineering grad students, there wouldn’t be any grad students.
Which begs the question -— WHERE ARE OUR OWN — AMERICAN — science and engineering grad students?
RE: This means that all citizens of the PRC must be assumed to be agents of the state in either an active or passive mode. That is just the cold hard facts.
OK, let’s follow your assumption to its logical conclusion -— WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE WE DO? Deport every single Chinese scientist and academic regardless of their motive for working in their field?
How is this different from interring Japanese during the Second World War?
Worked at 2 universities from 1969-2017. I knew Chinese people living here and worked with some. They honestly told me many Chinese get jobs in order to steal information and technology and get it to China. Also our various passwords which allowed us to contact places that were doing defense or high tech work we weren’t doing-—but Chinese could get inside using the passwords there and set up phony identities and facsimile sites.
Others had nothing to do with it but had heard of it. One student assistant in my office was a Chinese girl who was devoutly Christian and strongly conservative (hope her persecuted Christian parents are still ok in China—I met them on a visit here.)
Local news site had a commenter (I know, whom can we trust to be factual?) who worked in an IT department and one day the FBI put handcuffs on two young Chinese coworkers and led them out. Never returned to work. The agents asked “for the good of our country, please don’t discuss their work or their arrest.”
Makes you stop and think.
No we should just go ahead and make all of our medical and technological advances available to China. It is happening. We have not the will to stop it as see your own comment so we should just give it to them.
There are plenty of them. My son for instance with an MS in Materials Eng. That said there are lots of people in China - four times more than in the US. I see no reason why they should be in our colleges - especially since our federal government is borrowing money to fund college research.
I've been to China...several times. I know what it's like to be "tracked" by Chinese officials....I experienced it *first hand*.
I am of the *unshakable* belief that there's *nothing* that the Chinese government is not capable of.
"Suspicious of"? I'd encourage you to wake up and smell the coffee.
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