China views American universities as places from which spies can be recruited and secrets can be stolen. Beijing has deployed thousands of intelligence officers and agents to steal cutting-edge research for the Chinese Communist Party’s benefit.

This bears note following the publication on Monday of a Sept. 8 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Written by 177 Stanford University faculty members, the letter demanded an end to the FBI-led “China Initiative.” The initiative has focused resources on disrupting Chinese intelligence activity in U.S. society. Unfortunately, the Stanford signatories offered only a passing hat tip to this important objective.