Chinese students are not spies

Following a deadly Florida school shooting, that resulted in 17 deaths, including that of a Chinese-American student who held the door to let classmates escape, we learned that the FBI received a tip-off about the shooter last month, but failed to act.

The FBI was probably too busy with other threats, such as Chinese students in the United States, who, according to Elizabeth Redden on the website of Inside Higher Ed, could be spies. In a piece titled "The Chinese Student Threat?", published on Feb 15, Redden wrote that FBI's director Christopher Wray told a Senate panel that the US academic sector is naive about the intelligence risks posed by Chinese students and scholars.

I was red with anger reading the piece, as Redden portrays all Chinese students and scholars in the US as a risk to its national security. It is hard not to take this personally. Although sometimes I wish my life was that colorful. "The name is Fang, Berlin Fang."