Watchdog Says Missouri State Trained 1,500 China-Linked Executives, Including Defense-Tied Graduates
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 25
Watchdog Says Missouri State Trained 1,500 China-Linked Executives, Including Defense-Tied Graduates
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 25
Summary
A Strategy Risks report says Missouri State University ran MBA and Executive MBA programs from 2001 that educated more than 1,500 Chinese executives, officials and state-firm managers, including graduates linked to sanctioned defense giant AVIC.
The report argues the pipeline escaped U.S. scrutiny because it focused on management training rather than STEM research, and says many participants were recruited through Chinese government agencies, state-owned enterprises and CCP-linked groups.
Missouri State denied taxpayer money funded the program and said students took a conventional business curriculum, with no evidence of espionage, intellectual-property theft, misconduct or visa violations.
Chinese recruiting materials cited by the report described the partnership as a China-U.S. state-to-state project and suggested U.S. or Missouri-supported subsidies covered part of the cost, though the report says no public records independently verify those payments.
The allegations land amid broader congressional pressure on U.S.-China academic ties, including probes into China Scholarship Council links, a $67 million NSF security initiative and new bills targeting federal funding for universities tied to CCP-linked groups.