By Greg Ganske

May 16^th, 2025

Several years ago, a Chinese woman student friend of my daughter committed suicide while studying here in the United States. I only know for certain that she was depressed. However, in light of recent revelations about China spying not only on countries and corporations but on its own international students (BBC News, Kelly, Dec 2024), it makes me wonder whether this Big Brother activity contributed to her mental illness? (“After FBI Busts Chinese ‘police Station’ in NYC, Six More Exposed in US,” Vincent, New York Post, 4/19/23.)

All students in transitioning to college face loss of structure, separation from their parents, and increased exposure to drugs and alcohol. Suicide is the third leading cause of deaths in young adults 18 to 24 years of age. However, Asian students are more likely than white students to have suicidal thoughts and to attempt suicide to the extent that the mental health struggles of Chinese international students is a major concern of college counselors.

A cross-sectional study 130 Chinese international undergraduate and graduate students at Yale university found that 45% exhibited symptoms of depression and 29% were anxious. In contrast, about 14% of general college students in America report symptoms of depression. The same researchers found less than 12% depression for students at a Chinese university. This suggests Chinese international students face a greater burden of psychological distress than their counterparts in China. (Han, X, et al. Report of a mental health survey among Chinese International students at Yale University; J Am Coll Health, 2013: 61:1-8.)

Why are Chinese students in America more depressed? There are many speculative reasons. They are more likely to be singleton children as part of China’s One-Child policy. Only children may be more likely to be egocentric and unable to manage impulses. Many Chinese families view money as the single answer to many of life’s problems (Exploring the Antecedents of Money Attitudes in China: Evidence From University Students, Front Psychol, June 1:13, 2022) and parents place immense pressure on their children to succeed academically as a way to achieve wealth. Parents are willing to spend heavily to send their children overseas to obtain education at top universities. Traditional Confucian social structures may increase the pressure for students to excel academically justifying their parents’ sacrifice.

The activities of the Communist Chinese state in surveilling international students likely adds to these stresses and to isolation of international Chinese graduate students. It is well known that the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) has very active espionage on US soil including the transmission of sensitive military information, theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice. The total cost of the CCP’s theft of American intellectual property amounts to as much as $6,000 for the average American family of four after taxes.

What is not so well known until recently is the extent of its transnational repression operations. Reports by the Center for Human Rights and Madrid based Safeguard Defenders (a not-for -profit human rights organization that monitors disappearances in China) blew the lid off 102 Chinese overseas ‘police stations’ across 53 countries worldwide. These ‘spy stations’ supposedly function as cultural and administrative centers for Chinese nationals in foreign countries. In reality they use “persuasion to return” operations to force Chinese dissidents to return to China where they are prosecuted for crimes against the Chinese state.

Safeguard Defenders alerted the US to four of these “police stations” in the US–one in Manhattan, two others in New York and Los Angeles and a fourth that was undisclosed. Allied with these ‘police stations’ were Overseas Service Centers including those in San Francisco, Houston and even in Omaha Nebraska whose addresses and telephone numbers appear on a list of overseas cells run by a branch of the CCP. The FBI arrested two CCP Manhattan Chinese operatives and charged them with conspiring to act as agents for the Chinese government. An additional 44 Chinese nationals were charged by federal prosecutors with waging a campaign of surveillance and harassment against dissidents living in the United States.

On May 12, 2024, Amnesty International published research based on interviews with Chinese students in 24 leading universities in Europe and the United States. It concluded that “…many international students from China are living and studying with the constant fear of being targeted under China’s and Hong Kong’s national security and intelligence laws and regulations or otherwise being subjected to surveillance, harassment, or intimidation by Chinese authorities or their agents in connection with the exercise of their human rights.”

Within 24 hours of their attendance at events such as commemorations of the Tiananmen massacre these students’ parents in China were threatened by police. One Chinese student described how within hours of attending a Tiananmen Square commemoration she heard from her father in China who was told to “educate his daughter who is studying overseas not to attend any events that may harm China’s reputation in the world.” The surveillance by Chinese students extends to the classroom with Chinese students censoring themselves in academic discussions to ‘avoid sensitive topics’ as viewed by Chinese authorities.

Almost a third of students interviewed by Amnesty International said authorities threatened to revoke their passports, get them fired from jobs, prevent them from receiving promotions and even limit their physical freedom. More than half of the students interviewed self-censored their posts on non-Chinese media platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram. It is taken as a fact that any post on WeChat, the Chinese social media platform, used by Chinese students in the US are surveilled. Many Chinese graduate students in the United States will not speak freely in seminars if there are other Chinese students attending who could report them to the CCP on official Chinese national security hot lines.

More than half of the students interviewed said they suffered mental health issues linked to their fears. Some even cut contact with loved ones back home to protect them from being targeted by the Chinese authorities. This made them even more isolated and lonely. One student said that a researcher cut ties with him due to his support of protests as the researcher feared the association might impair the researcher’s access to opportunities in China. A recent article in the Stanford Review shows the extent of Chinese spying and intimidation of Chinese students at one of our leading universities.

This harassment around the world even extends to kidnapping. On May 12, 2024, Australian ABC News TV aired an interview with a Chinese intelligence agent who had defected. He had worked for China’s National Security, their secret police. He had coordinated the kidnapping of Chinese refugees in Australia and others were lured to Cambodia and Laos. He said that Chinese agents came to Australia posing as anti-Communist dissidents, obtained asylum and infiltrated the refugee communities. No wonder that Chinese students in the US are leery of developing close relationships with other Chinese students.

Chinese students in the US might seek companionship and social services at the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) that exist at most US universities and colleges Their stated function is to help overseas Chinese in their life, study and work bringing Chinese Students together. However, CSSAs are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. CSSAs receive guidance from the CCP through Chinese embassies and consulates. Human rights groups describe CSSAs as NGOs used to surveil and report on Chinese students abroad. The Wikipedia entry on CSSAs describes many examples of how CSSAs are used as front organizations for personal and industrial espionage.

Chinese students are surely aware of the connection of CSSAs with the CCP. An increasing awareness by US colleges of depression and other mental illnesses of Chinese foreign students going untreated has led to efforts like the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness. This initiative seeks to promote the mental health of international students and to advance knowledge through primary prevention, research, and clinical consultation.

A recent study highlighted by the AMA (Contreras, Managed Care Executive, 5/2/2025) shows that annual depression screening for young adults during primary care visits is cost effective. Colleges should consider implementing this as part of their student health programs, especially for high-risk groups such as foreign Chinese students.

My own state has witnessed two examples of horrific murders by mentally disturbed Chinese graduate students. One Chinese foreign student in Iowa City did not receive the grade he expected and in 1991 went on a shooting rampage that shocked the state. Wikipedia outlines the story of the 1994 murder of Iowa State University Chinese woman undergraduate Shao Tang by another Chinese student enrolled at the University of Iowa, Li Xiangnam. He fled to Beijing and subsequently pleaded guilty to Chinese authorities.

I can’t help but think that my daughter’s Chinese friend who committed suicide had few places to go for mental health problems, certainly not among her Chinese fellow students or organizations whom she would have expected to relay information about her troubles back home.

Politicians are moving to crack down on Chinese police stations in the US. For example, Iowa’s US Representative Ashley Hinson and Arkansas US Senator Tom Cotton just introduced legislation to impose financial punishments on these secret Chinese police stations. The bill would also bolster the legal options available for prosecuting individuals engaging in Chinese intelligence activities.

There are currently about 300,000 Chinese students enrolled at US universities and colleges. While our government should focus on the espionage of some students as we should also be addressing the 24,000 illegal Chinese immigrants encountered in the first six months of 2024, the vast majority of Chinese students in the US are just here to get an education. They are valuable additions to our educational system, and we should make them feel welcome and safe. Part of that is better assuring they are not harassed, threatened, detained, or injured by Communist Chinese spies for having participated in free speech activities.

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Greg Ganske, MD, is a retired plastic and reconstructive surgeon who cared for women with breast cancer, children with birth defects, farmers with hand injuries, burn victims and other trauma patients. He served Iowa in the US Congress from 1995-2003.