Czech Scholar Reveals: The CCP Has 'Weaponised' Academic Exchange

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses American campuses to control students who exercise freedom of speech at universities. (Dajiyuan, Getty Images)

[People News] Recently, the intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes alliance (FVEY), which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, issued a warning that Beijing has significantly expanded the scale and complexity of its espionage activities. In a recent article, prominent Czech sinologist Luo Ran exposed that the CCP has dispatched professional scholars to visit and directly gather information on anti-China (anti-CCP) sentiments among the Czech public and the local sinology community, while also defending the CCP's policies towards ethnic minorities. Luo Ran argues that this demonstrates how the CCP authorities are utilizing academic exchanges to collect relevant information abroad and promote ideological propaganda, thereby effectively 'weaponizing' academic exchange.

According to a report by the Liberty Times, an article by Luo Ran (Olga Lomová) was published on the website "Sinopsis" under the title "An Uninvited Guest from China." The article highlights a recent incident where a Chinese lecturer, who had previously taught in the Czech Republic, visited an old acquaintance, accompanied by a student and two scholars from Shanghai's Tongji University. These two visitors stressed that they were not members of the Chinese Communist Party and quickly steered the conversation towards political issues, asking about the anti-China (anti-Communist) sentiments among the Czech populace, while attempting to clarify the CCP's "ethnic integration" policy. The two "scholars" also defended the CCP's "National Unity and Progress Promotion Law," admitting that they were employed in the Department of Situation and Policy Research at the Marxism Institute of Tongji University, where they primarily teach the compulsory ideological and political courses mandated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, aimed at ensuring that students support the Communist Party and understand its policies and direction. 

Luo Ran noted in the article that these visitors also sought information on where and who teaches Chinese in the Czech Republic, requesting contact details. Luo remarked, "This is a shocking example of how the CCP mobilizes academic personnel to conduct ideological education, even abroad. Sinologists are the first to face the consequences." 

Luo Ran cautioned that such research initiatives, while appearing to focus on architecture and the preservation of historical sites, are actually designed to erase the cultural traditions of ethnic minorities. When individuals no longer inhabit the spaces they have been accustomed to for centuries and abandon their traditional lifestyles, they risk being brainwashed into becoming loyal subjects of the Communist Party.

Luo Ran highlighted that several internationally recognized scholars committed to safeguarding Xinjiang's culture have faced persecution from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Notably, the prominent Uyghur anthropologist Rahile Dawut was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2023 on charges of 'separatism'. Additionally, Tashpolat Tiyip, a well-known geographer and former president of Xinjiang University, received a death sentence in a secret trial in 2017.

Luo Ran urged the international community to stay alert and not overlook the infiltration tactics employed by Beijing under the pretext of academic exchange, which are aimed at enforcing ideological control and cultural whitewashing.

The CCP is actively seeking to identify and leverage 'pro-China' forces.

Experts in the West generally agree that the incidents disclosed by Luo Ran further validate the CCP's strategy of using 'academic exchanges as tools for intelligence gathering and extending its propaganda efforts'.

They contend that the CCP's foreign intelligence operations rely not only on traditional spies but also extensively on scholars, think tank researchers, and government-affiliated civil organizations (such as the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries). This approach, masked as 'civil academic visits' or 'peer exchanges', constitutes an atypical, low-risk, and hard-to-detect method of intelligence collection. During their visits, these Chinese scholars investigate 'grassroots anti-China sentiment' and 'trends in Sinology', with the goal of providing the Beijing authorities with critical insights, helping the CCP understand the overseas academic community's perspectives on China, and subsequently refining their propaganda strategies or identifying usable 'pro-China' forces abroad.

In recent years, the Czech Republic has emerged as a frontline state in Europe’s efforts to combat Chinese grey zone infiltration. The Czech Security Information Service (BIS) and various political figures have previously issued clear warnings about this issue. In its annual public reports, BIS has repeatedly highlighted the active presence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Czech Republic, noting that the CCP is 'particularly skilled at using academic, cultural, and technological exchanges as a cover.' The BIS has specifically cautioned the academic community that many seemingly ordinary academic visits may actually serve national security or intelligence purposes, urging Western scholars to increase their vigilance and avoid inadvertently becoming sources of intelligence collection.

Political figures such as Pavel Fischer, the chairman of the Czech Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, who have long monitored CCP infiltration, have frequently pointed out in public forums that the Beijing authorities have long engaged in ideological censorship, propaganda laundering, and intelligence gathering in Europe under the pretext of 'academic freedom' and 'cultural exchange.' The CCP has effectively 'weaponized' academic exchanges. They are calling on European universities and research institutions to implement stricter defense mechanisms and conduct thorough security reviews (Due Diligence).

Western experts have praised Luo Ran for his decision to publicly expose these issues, believing that it helps to demystify the operations of the CCP's overseas influence and serves as a reminder for the global academic community to stay alert. European countries are currently transitioning from a previous mindset of 'naively viewing academia as borderless' to one of 'strengthening academic security and preventing sharp power infiltration.' Luo Ran's disclosures have also become a significant case driving reflection and preventive measures within the European academic community.
△