Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I thank my friend from Kansas.
I want to talk a little bit about a hearing I chaired yesterday, a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration hearing that was called ``Student Visa Integrity: Protecting Educational Opportunity and National Security.'' The point of the hearing was to raise awareness about a very serious issue and to hear from the Federal agencies responsible for our national security, visa policy, and the vetting of foreign nationals studying in the United States.
We hoped to shed light on policies and procedures that are in place, what should be in place but is not, and to address what has become a growing source of concern; that is, foreign countries taking advantage of their international students studying in the United States and turning them into intelligence assets or otherwise using them to gain information that will help other countries grow their economy and their military in a way that undermines U.S. leadership in both of those areas.
That issue relates primarily to China's aggressive plan to surpass the United States on all fronts--militarily, economically, and technologically--and to do so by whatever means necessary. We already know that China is perhaps the No. 1 abuser of cyber space to steal intellectual property and to use that to advance its economy or its military. They have been very public about their ultimate goal; that is, to use whatever means they need in order to advance their economy or their military.
It is important to remember that China is not a democracy like ours. China is a Communist country guided by a doctrine that does not recognize the human rights or individual rights that we take for granted here in the United States and in other democracies.
They made it very clear what they intend to do. For example, in its ``Made in China 2025'' strategy, which is something that has been published--you can read it yourself--China is accelerating its efforts to acquire U.S. intellectual property and sensitive research. That is where our universities in particular come in.
Billions of Federal tax dollars--I think it is $178 billion in the Omnibus appropriations bill alone--are given to universities to conduct research to benefit the American people and hopefully all of humankind. Some of that research is sensitive because it is classified research. We had, for example, the head of security at the Texas A&M University System talk about the steps they have taken to protect that from prying eyes because of the sensitivity of some of that research.
Universities are ground zero in this threat. This past February, Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in an open hearing about the security risk posed by certain Chinese students, visiting scientists, and scholars at American colleges and universities. His remarks were brief, and because of the sensitive and classified aspects of some part of what he said, he couldn't provide the full context and breadth in that open setting, but what he did say publicly was alarming. He said that the FBI is ``watching warily'' and that ``naivete'' was exacerbating the problem. What I think he meant by that is that people were simply unaware and thus unprepared for what was happening. He also made very clear that the Chinese Government was intent on doing whatever it needed to do-- whether it is placing intelligence officers or other agents of the Chinese Government on campuses--to get the information they want.
We are fortunate to have the world's top universities and colleges, and they are known for their open research, which fosters collaboration and innovation across a broad array of industry sectors and academic disciplines. One of the crown jewels of our country is our colleges and universities and the research they do, but our openness is also a vulnerability when being exploited by other countries for their own purposes.
What is happening now, Director Wray says, is that foreign actors have taken advantage of that open environment and are using it to study, learn, and acquire sensitive information to the detriment of U.S. national security--and that is what we are primarily talking about here.
It is not an isolated problem. Director Wray said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is actively monitoring universities in all of its 56 field offices across the country, not just in major cities. Nearly all students and visiting scholars come for legitimate reasons. I take that as a given. We are not talking about everybody; we are talking about the isolated few. But the danger still remains. Most are here to learn and share our culture and to contribute their talents to America.
I tend to think that our colleges and universities are the best elements of our soft power as a nation. When people come here and learn more about us and where we share values, perhaps even take those values back to their home country and serve as someone we can talk to and work with in the future, it promotes world peace, promotes mutual understanding, and, as I said, I think it is one of the most important elements of our soft power as a country.
I am not here suggesting that we ought to conflate Chinese Communist Party influence on all students and academics--far from it. Students from across the world are certainly welcome; we welcome them with open arms to come to study at our colleges and universities, and I encourage them to explore opportunities to do so.
What yesterday's hearing was actually about was not them but a small subset of people we should be concerned about--security risks, those who are here to steal and exploit our intellectual property and our national security and economic advantages, people who don't respect the rule of law as we do when it comes to intellectual property rights.
As the FBI Director said, we can't be naive. This theft is occurring. It has been well documented, and we have to take the necessary preventive measures to ensure that it doesn't continue.
By the way, I have mentioned one country, China, but certainly these concerns are not limited to China. There are more than 5,000 Russian students studying in the United States. There are other countries, including state sponsors of terrorism, like Iran, that have foreign students here, actively working to steal U.S. technology and bypass expensive research and development and exploit the student visa program to gain information that will benefit their countries.
I will just pause for a moment to say that we spend untold amounts of money in this country--taxpayers' hard-earned money--to research and develop the newest, most innovative products. That is true in the military sector and in the nonmilitary sector. But when the American taxpayer pays to produce the necessary weapons and necessary infrastructure to protect us and our security, and other countries are actively trying to steal it and don't have to pay that research and development cost, we can see the obvious problem.
Yesterday's hearing exposed a bigger problem, and that is the issue of competing global visions. Communist China makes no secret of the fact that Karl Marx is, in effect, their national hero. There was a week-long celebration in China just last month, which included a mandatory study session, led by President Xi, of Marx's famous work, ``The Communist Manifesto.'' Events like this show that China, while a rival, in some ways could be a wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to its most aggressive tactics, which I mentioned just a moment ago. When it tries to present itself as a westernizing economy and a friend of the global community of nations, China conveniently ignores facts about its alternative development model and its state-controlled economy, the fact that it respects no law in pursuit of those policies. It also disguises and downplays its geopolitical aims--to rewrite the rules of our world order and recreate them in China's own image.
Whether it is China's increasing belligerence in places like the South China Sea, its crushing of internal political dissent, its flagrant human rights violations, or its population controls--like the one-child policy, which I understand has now been relaxed, but parents are not free to have all the children they want. It is controlled by the government; you have to ask the government's permission--China has repeatedly shown itself as a power-hungry authoritarian country, willing and able to violate the rights of its own people and dismissive and contemptuous of international norms and international law.
I don't intend to sound hyperbolic about this, but this is the truth. So let's not deceive ourselves into believing otherwise. That is what Director Christopher Wray of the FBI calls naivete. Let's not be naive. Let's be wary when China tries to just blend in internationally. Its rosy rhetoric and misleading narrative of cooperation are often camouflaged for its true and more troubling aims.
We know that there are high-level negotiations between the United States and the Chinese Government on the issue of trade, and that is a good thing.
Madam President, how much time do I have remaining?
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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I joined a number of other Senators, 27 Senators, to talk about ongoing trade negotiations with China. The main point of the letter was to emphasize that there is no question that China is actively seeking to surpass the United States economically and militarily. It is imperative that neither the Federal Government nor private U.S. companies abet that effort either deliberately or inadvertently.
When it comes to China, national security isn't just a pretext for economic protectionism. It should not be. I, like many of my colleagues, believe strongly in free trade, and we shouldn't use national security as a pretext for economic protection. But the national security concerns are indeed real, for example, in the ZTE matter, which is a subject of some debate--as it should be--and discussion here in the Congress following the negotiation by Secretary Ross of a deal that he is proposing.
For those of us who serve on the Intelligence Committee and on the Armed Services Committee, I assure you, the threat China poses is real, and the dangers we worry about are already taking effect. Our inaction could have only negative consequences, and we need to aim to prevent any future negative consequences for our country.
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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
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