Michigan State Allegedly Aided China's Info War

Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, clarified that while the report highlights MSU's involvement, it appears the university's support was unintentional, underscoring a potential lack of awareness regarding the nature of its Chinese partners' broader activities.

Michigan State University has maintained several long-standing partnerships with Chinese universities, two of which have significant connections to China's propaganda apparatuses. These collaborations involved sharing MSU's name, credibility, and training resources, potentially enhancing the legitimacy of the associated Chinese institutions.

Research topics at these linked institutions included critical areas like psychological and information warfare, suggesting that MSU's unwitting assistance might have indirectly bolstered capabilities aligned with Chinese state interests.

This oversight means that many institutions are not asking the difficult questions necessary to fully understand their partners' affiliations and objectives.

Institutions often prioritize the prestige and potential financial gains of such collaborations over comprehensive security analysis, leading to significant blind spots. A major oversight is the failure to critically examine why Chinese institutions seek these partnerships and what their ultimate goals might be.

Beyond this overarching control, some of these universities maintain very important ties with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Ministry of State Security.

Given these pervasive state affiliations, academic entities engaging with Chinese partners must recognize the systemic risks involved. This includes understanding the potential for research and collaborations to be leveraged for purposes beyond purely academic pursuits.

While it is important for Americans to study and understand China, the primary concern revolves around the CCP's pervasive influence on these entities.

Therefore, any entity — whether academic, corporate, or governmental — seeking to engage with China must proceed with full awareness and their eyes wide open to these inherent risks. This means understanding that partnerships might carry implications beyond stated academic or business goals.

The current goal of transparency initiatives is not widespread decoupling from China or the demonization of Chinese people. Instead, the objective is to promote a better understanding of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operates within its academic and broader societal structures.

By gaining this understanding, universities can make better and safer decisions regarding their international partnerships. The ultimate aim is to empower universities to self-regulate and ensure their operations align with national security and academic integrity, thereby potentially preventing the need for government intervention.

Isaac Stone Fish advocates for American universities to actively "clean their own houses" and address problems within their international partnerships. This proactive approach would mitigate issues such as hidden military ties or the inadvertent sharing of sensitive U.S. secrets, which pose national security risks.

Internal reform is also crucial for preventing harassment of students by foreign actors and other internal volatilities that can compromise academic integrity. By demonstrating effective self-governance, universities can eliminate excuses for state, local, or national government bodies to intervene with external oversight.

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