Hello viewers, welcome to “Epoch Focus”. I am Wan Yan. What are the major events worth paying attention to today? Let’s take a look together.
Today’s Focus:
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies rampant – Top US universities infiltrated; Housing market collapse dragging down financial system – Mainland Chinese banks facing wave of closures; Chinese netizens trapped in an illusory world of filtered information.
On May 7th, an independent publication affiliated with Stanford University in the US, the “Stanford Review”, released an in-depth investigative report revealing CCP’s long-term spy activities at Stanford University, targeting students and professors involved in sensitive research areas. The varied methods employed make it difficult to guard against. What is really going on? Let’s take a closer look:
This investigation was based on more than ten interviews conducted between July 2024 and April 2025, involving faculty, students, alumni of Stanford, as well as experts in CCP intelligence and technology theft.
For example, a female student, Anna (alias), who mainly researches Chinese issues, claimed that she met a Stanford student named Charles Chen on social media. During their interactions, Charles would ask seemingly harmless questions, such as about students’ social interactions, whether she spoke Mandarin, etc.
Soon, Charles encouraged Anna to visit Beijing and offered to pay for her trip. To prove his claims and ability to cover Anna’s flight expenses, he even sent a screenshot of his bank account balance to Anna.
However, Anna quickly sensed something was amiss. During their conversations, Charles would mention personal information that Anna had never disclosed. Furthermore, he urged Anna to use the Chinese version of WeChat for communication. WeChat is a platform highly monitored by the CCP, which raised doubts in Anna’s mind.
When Charles requested Anna to delete their chat records, Anna’s sense of caution peaked, leading her to contact the security department.
According to the investigation, Charles Chen is likely a special agent of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) of the CCP, tasked with identifying students with favorable views or ambiguous positions towards the CCP, recruiting potential “candidates” and gathering intelligence.
It is noteworthy that almost all the targets “discovered” by Charles on social media are female. Therefore, it is essential to remind female friends to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity promptly.
Many may question the value of students in intelligence gathering, deeming it fruitless. However, intelligence collection targets are not necessarily about stealing confidential documents; it may involve extracting the processes and tricks behind American technological innovation quietly. This includes conclusions, methodologies, software, lab workflows, collaborative structures of Stanford research projects, and even communication channels.
A Stanford faculty member who declined to disclose their identity mentioned that such non-traditional intelligence collection targeting sensitive technology is widespread, particularly in artificial intelligence and robotics fields at Stanford.
An expert familiar with the Stanford situation revealed that among approximately 1,129 Chinese international students at Stanford, some have been continually reporting information to the CCP. An essential category of students being heavily exploited are those funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), which represents about 15% of the total international students. All funded students are required to sign a so-called “loyalty commitment.” Violating their pledge to the CCP not only puts themselves in trouble but also implicates their families.
Professor Larry Diamond from Stanford University pointed out that if a Chinese student expresses support for the Dalai Lama, criticizes Beijing, or condemns the CCP’s authoritarianism, they might receive warnings, and their families in China could face troubles.
Former Director of China Affairs at the US National Security Council, Matthew Tepin, stated that the CCP government spends a significant amount of time collecting data on overseas students, understanding their backgrounds thoroughly. They also know who is doing what, making it easy to reach those working in areas of interest to Beijing. They utilize a strategy of “carrot and stick,” where providing information might lead to rewards, while withholding information may result in penalties.
Moreover, overseas students with family members in the mainland are also threatened. Sometimes the CCP will invite parents in China for a “chat” to “advise” their children to cooperate. This tactic has been used for a long time and is still in practice.
Former FBI Director Christopher Ray once described the CCP’s academic espionage as the “largest wealth transfer in human history.”
The report by the “Stanford Review” indicated that through interviews, they found that Stanford professors, students, and researchers could speak out about their experiences with CCP spies without hesitation, yet they fear discussing openly. Reasons include concerns about being labeled as “racist,” fears of international pressure from the CCP, and the risk of losing $64 million in Chinese funds for the school. These thoughts have led to widespread silence on the issue of CCP espionage at Stanford.
The “Stanford Review” emphasized: “This prevalent silence has prompted us to write this report. After interviewing several anonymous Stanford faculty, students, and China experts, we can confirm that the CCP is conducting extensive intelligence activities at Stanford University. In short, ‘there are Chinese (CCP) spies in Stanford.'”
China’s economy continues to decline, with real estate collapsing. Now, this crisis triggered by the real estate sector is gradually spreading to the financial system.
According to Yicai, in 2024 alone, 199 small and medium-sized banks in China were deregistered, far exceeding the total for the past three years.
Data shows that among the 199 deregistered banks, there were 36 credit cooperatives, 56 rural commercial banks, 6 rural mutual aid funds, 100 village banks, and one city commercial bank. Among them, 89 were approved for dissolution, 102 for mergers, and 8 for business registration cancellation.
Not only small banks but even the top six banks in China cannot escape ongoing contraction. In 2024, the six major banks collectively reduced the number of branches by 361, equivalent to one branch being closed every day. Although the CCP authorities portrayed this as “streamlining,” astute observers can discern it as the CCP’s compelled move.
The recession in the banking industry is directly related to the collapse of the real estate sector. Recent data shows that in March of this year, out of 70 major and medium-sized cities in China, 68 cities experienced continued decline in house prices, with an average decrease of 5%. This poses a significant blow to banks relying on real estate collateral for loans; as property prices drop, the value of collateral decreases, increasing loan risks.
Watching the real estate market spiral out of control, the CCP government has directly loosened its grip. According to China Real Estate Net, at least 18 cities this year canceled or relaxed restrictions on housing prices, allowing developers to set prices independently. This move has further destabilized an already struggling real estate market.
Some developers have set prices extremely low to recoup funds, even lower than second-hand homes of similar size and location. In order to sell their houses, second-hand homeowners have had to further reduce prices. This vicious cycle continues.
Furthermore, many homeowners facing unemployment or salary cuts are unable to meet their mortgage payments, resulting in defaults. Some homeowners witnessing drastic drops in house prices, where the remaining value is lower than the bank loan they have not fully repaid, choose to default proactively. Combined with the frequent occurrence of abandoned construction projects in China, the non-performing loans at banks keep escalating.
During the real estate boom, banks re-mortgaged assets for lending. The comprehensive economic downturn now leaves banks struggling with broken funding chains. The only hope lies in the central bank “printing money” for rescue, but such actions will only worsen the situation.
In response to this, Professor Zhi Tien from the University of South Carolina boldly stated that the issues with China’s economic downturn may continue, with a potential financial tsunami hitting China anytime soon, resulting in more bank closures. This is a major trend that is challenging to reverse.
Recently, on the WeChat public account “Science and Truth”, an article titled “The Plight of Chinse Information Cocoon from the Global Traffic Ranking” compared the content volumes of Chinese and English on the internet, revealing a harsh reality: every Chinese netizen essentially lives in a “Truman world” after three layers of filtration. The so-called “vast information” they encounter is but a drop in the vast ocean of knowledge.
Due to its sensitive nature, the article was quickly deleted from the platform.
The article highlighted that under the CCP’s blockade, Chinese information contributes only a tiny fraction in the global network, approximately 1.3%. The number of English entries on Wikipedia, the world’s largest knowledge-sharing platform, is 15 times that of the Chinese version.
A comparison conducted using search engines reveals even more stark results. Google receives a massive monthly traffic of 853 billion, while Baidu dominates the Chinese market and is limited in international influence within the Chinese-speaking world.
While global netizens retrieve knowledge on Google, watch videos on YouTube, and share lives on Facebook, Chinese internet users are confined to a digital island constructed by Baidu, Taobao, and WeChat.
Although Chinese internet companies may seem brilliant, they merely thrive within a closed-loop of prosperity. Over-reliance on a closed market results in a lack of genuine global competitiveness for businesses.
Independent scholar Wu Zuolai stated that after Chinese information is uploaded to the international network, its total amount contributes minimally. This is due to various factors: English civilization being the world’s mainstream, CCP government’s repression, censorship, deletion, review, and self-censorship leading to a scarcity of domestic information. As a result, Chinese resources contribute less to world civilization.
Wu Zuolai further explained that after World War II, English civilization became the mainstream worldwide, prompting any country to translate its writings to English to gain entry into the mainstream, including academic research and paper publishing. In essence, the total volume of English content is significant.
Chinese, on the other hand, stands in stark contrast. Ancient Chinese texts and contemporary creations are less numerous compared to the English world, coupled with CCP censorship. Even if Chinese individuals publish a plethora of content, it is hard to find on the international network.
He provided the example, “The millions of words I posted on CNBlog back then have almost all been deleted.” Chinese content was originally limited, and with CCP crackdowns and censorship, it becomes scarcer, dwindling to a mere dismal 1.3%.
“We started writing on Weibo, where each website had hundreds or even thousands of people dedicated to deleting content, resulting in a massive discrepancy. This is a huge irony on the Communist Party. It claims to promote Chinese culture, but now it’s in this sorry state,” Wu remarked.
The CCP’s digital barricade separates Chinese people from the international community, akin to frogs in the well, leading many to instinctively reject Western society.
For instance, recently, at the shareholders’ meeting of Gree Electric Appliances, Ltd. in Zhuhai, Chairman Dong Mingzhu stated that there might be spies among overseas returnees, bluntly saying, “We don’t need the returnees; cultivate talents domestically.” Her narrow-minded perspective caused quite a stir in the public sphere.
Wu Zuolai believes that if the internet were open, international material would flow into China, sparking feedback and new creations from within, leading to prosperity. He shared an incident where a renowned media personality in his circle asked, “Are Americans still unable to eat eggs now?” due to a lack of VPN software, displaying an alarming level of information scarcity. Continuously closing off, Chinese resources’ contributions to world civilization progressively diminish, lacking quality as people remain unaware of global developments, subsequently drifting towards populism and relying on toxic information provided by the CCP.
Wu Zuolai emphasized, “When searching through AI, many logics have been poisoned by the Communist Party, aligning with their views. This signifies that the issue with Chinese information isn’t a problem of quantity, but rather, the entire pool of water has been contaminated and distorted. AI has been trained based on vast Chinese databases, making it more terrifying than having less information. Less has no impact. If it’s fresh and clean water, it doesn’t matter how much it is, but when it’s polluted, the more there is, the more harmful it becomes.”
One of the initiators of the Firewall-breaking movement, Liu Dongling, stated that the CCP erects a digital firewall, leading many people to live in a highly constructed and controlled ecosystem without realizing it. For typical internet users, without enough awareness to seek broader perspectives, they stay in a closed and passively shaped cognitive space for an extended period. She believes that breaking through the firewall isn’t just a technical action; it’s a waking of the will, a leap from information freedom towards physical freedom.
Liu Dongling urged to start from the family level, assisting children in bypassing the firewall, dismantling the CCP’s “Great Wall”. Only by tearing down this barrier to information and thoughts can the next generation of Chinese be saved.
That’s all for today’s news. If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave us a comment for a discussion. Thank you for watching, and see you next time.
Production Team of “Epoch Focus”