Episode
US Colleges Caught Assisting Chinese Spies! (Giant Network Exposed)
- Published
- May 11, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2869
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Summary
Elsa Johnson, a Stanford student and Hoover Institution researcher, was aggressively targeted by a suspected Chinese Ministry of State Security operative. What started as a friendly Instagram DM from “Charles Chen” quickly turned into visa-free trip offers, pressure to move to WeChat, and eventual transnational repression — all while universities looked the other way. In this Based Camp episode, Malcolm and Simone Collins break down the full university-to-CCP pipeline: how massive Chinese student tuition payments create financial dependency, the role of CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Associations), Confucius Institutes, the United Front strategy, tech/IP theft in AI, and why American universities are failing to protect students and national security. Show Notes Elsa Johnson, a Stanford student, is calling attention to a toxic national security flaw playing out in American universities and the problem is so much bigger than I had imagined. This spring, she testified before the House committee on Education and the workforce, asking them to do something about the problem ‘I exposed China’s espionage tactics in The Times. Now I’m being harassed ’ What Happened to Elsa Johnson? * Elsa attended a Chinese language immersion school from kindergarten through either grade in Minneapolis, Minnesota * Got into Stanford University * Became a research assistant at the Hoover Institution, where she focused on Chinese industry and military tactics * From her congressional testimony: * “In June 2024, a few days after I spoke with one of my supervisors at Hoover about Chinese recruitment tactics targeting American academics, a man calling himself Charles Chen reached out to me on Instagram. He had over 100 mutual followers with me and had photos of Stanford on his profile. I had no…