CCP’s ‘Thousand Talents Program’ Recruits in France

CSIS director David Vigneault holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on July 16, 2020. The head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns that China is undermining Canada through its efforts to steal valuable technology and silence critics of Beijing's policies. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

In less than a month, Tsinghua University’s Alumni Association members in France received two recruitment offers from China. The first notice explicitly stated that the offer is part of China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” The second said the recruit would focus on critical areas sanctioned or led by the United States, such as chip research and development.

The Chinese communist regime initiated China’s Thousand Talents Program, a recruitment program designed to attract talent to China, in December 2008. In the past ten years, several Chinese American scholars who participated in the program have been investigated by U.S. authorities, with some sentenced to prison for violating laws in the United States.