The FBI is advising U.S. universities and corporations to develop ways to monitor Chinese students and visiting scholars from state-affiliated research institutions, amid increasing wariness toward Beijing by American intelligence agencies.
"We are being asked what processes are in place to know what labs they are working at or what information they are being exposed to," Fred Cate, vice president of research at Indiana University, told NPR on Friday.
"It's not a question of just looking for suspicious behavior," Cate added, "it's actually really targeting specific countries and the people from those countries."
But the FBI told NPR in a statement that the agency "regularly engages with the communities we serve.
"As part of this continual outreach, we meet with a wide variety of groups, organizations, businesses, and academic institutions," the statement continued. "The FBI has met with top officials from academia as part of our ongoing engagement on national security matters."
According to NPR, the FBI has discussed an unclassified list of Chinese research institutions and companies with at least 10 members of the Association of American Universities, which comprises 62 research universities, since last year.
In March, intelligence officials briefed about 70 college administrators in a similar group, the American Council on Education, NPR reports, suggesting increased oversight of Chinese researchers and not accepting funding from such companies as Huawei.
The intelligence briefings are advisory — and they also focus on visitors in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, according to NPR.
However, some administrators have yet to undertake monitoring efforts, skeptical of the intelligence threats of the lack of specifics from agencies on how to put any protocols in place.
Intelligence officers have also briefed hundreds of U.S. investors, CEOs and think-tank experts on Chinese threats on cybersecurity and espionage, according to the report.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.