Questions regarding various threats to national security and their links to Texas A&M have been ongoing for years now. There are patterns between the school and Qatar, and many links with the Chinese government. Now, there are new concerns being raised with the frolicking being done between the two parties, and it might be a bigger threat to our security than China itself.
According to a study done by Texas Scorecard, Texas A&M has been openly allowing China to infiltrate the schools Engineering Experiment Station. What does that mean? Well, Texas A&M is a United States defense contractor, and works on many critical projects concerning the military. Ballistic weaponry, defense, you name it.
Texas Scorecard's Robert Montoya says it has not been just a small number let in either.
"In 2016, the school allowed 87 Chinese citizens into the station...and of those, 52 came from universities with low-to-high security risks," he says.
Now, the numbers did drop in recent years, but they are going back up. In 2021, possibly due to the pandemic, the school allowed two Chinese nationals into the station. But in 2023, the school allowed ten of these scholars.
But is it not just the fact they are Chinese that makes it a problem. It is what Chinese laws dictate their citizen's do when they leave the country.
"They are a threat trying to undermine the United States...there is a law that mandates their citizen's, when they go abroad, to engage in espionage," he says.
This is not just happening at Texas A&M, either. A report from May 2021 shows 47 Chinese connections at American institutions, including at the University of California, Harvard, and of course, Texas A&M.
Not to mention as well, Texas A&M just four years ago had a Chinese NASA researcher arrested for wire fraud and false statements in connection to the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, A&M has still left the door wide open.
"Texas A&M is happily taking advanced engineering students from China and plugging them into some of our most sensitive projects...it makes no sense," he says.
Montoya, who conducted the study, says they reached out to Texas A&M, who says they fired all high-risk engagement back in 2021. However, when they asked for a report detailing that this year, the school blocked them and appealed to the Attorney General.