Combating China’s spies is the FBI’s top counterintelligence priority. With good reason. Chinese espionage and influence operations targeting America operate at a vast scale and with great diversity.
Halting Chinese espionage is fundamentally a federal responsibility, but there’s a lot that states can do to help. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Florida has made resisting Chinese spies and lies a high priority. In 2021, DeSantis signed into law new regulations that booted foreign espionage and influence organizations, such as China’s notorious Confucius Institutes, from Florida campuses. The emphasis on colleges is no accident because Beijing, for many years, has viewed higher education institutions across the West as ideal venues for stealing secrets and spreading propaganda.
