The House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to President Carol Folt on Wednesday requesting information on the 5,993 Chinese national students at USC. The committee wrote that Chinese national students in research-based fields could pose a threat to national security. 

“America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security,” the committee wrote.

The University wrote that it is reviewing the letter in a statement to the Daily Trojan.

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The committee alleges that universities in the United States have become dependent on international students’ tuition, which allows “foreign adversaries” to use international students to access American research illegally. 

As of March 19, similar letters from the committee had been sent to the presidents of Stanford University, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The letter states that the committee has “broad authority to investigate and submit policy recommendations on countering the economic, technological, security, and ideological threats of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The letter includes twenty questions that USC must answer by April 1. These questions regard topics such as collaborations between University faculty and China-based institutions or research laboratories, a list of the laboratories and research initiatives where Chinese national students currently work, and whether there are any background screening processes for Chinese nationals applying to sensitive research programs.

The letter references a Harvard University study which states that 25% of Chinese international students intend to immigrate to the West, around 50% intend to remain in the U.S. temporarily and 25% intend to return immediately or imminently to China. 

The letter alleges that the study raises concerns about Chinese nationals transferring knowledge gained at American universities back to China. It states that Chinese students returning to China led to Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other “strategic objectives.” 

“By failing to retain these skilled individuals or admit students more likely to remain in the country, U.S. universities inadvertently act as incubators for China’s technological and military advancements,” the committee wrote.