Ontario professor Xueliang (Andy) Sun at Western University has garnered numerous recognitions and accolades within Canadian academic circles. But in a 2021 interview with a Chinese media outlet, it was his efforts to “systemically cultivate talents for China” that he spoke about taking pride in.
“I systematically cultivate talents [for China]. They [my students] have been able to achieve success in scientific research and contribute to the country. I feel very proud of that,” Mr. Sun, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Western, told Shaanxi Daily in a report dated Dec. 23, 2021.
The Chinese regime’s international talent-recruitment programs have increasingly come under scrutiny from intelligence agencies in the West. Concerns have been raised regarding alleged use of persuasion or coercion within these programs aiming to induce individuals into transferring intellectual property or sensitive technologies to China. In certain instances, individuals have reportedly been compelled to engage in espionage on behalf of the regime.
Mr. Sun has taught dozens of students at Western, earlier known as the University of Western Ontario. The school’s website shows that a significant number of them appear to be of Chinese origin.
According to Shaanxi Daily, he has taught some 140 students in his nearly 20-year career at Western, and 50 have returned to China, with some enlisted in CCP talent programs. They include four in the youth division of the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP), one selected for the “New Century Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talents Project,” and one who received the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, said the media report.
The TTP is a well-known Chinese talent-recruitment program that operates under various similar names across China at different levels of government.
It “seeks to exploit the collaborative, transparent, and open nature of Canada’s private sector, universities and colleges using scholarships, sponsored trips and visiting professorships to recruit individuals to advance PRC objectives,” according to notes prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for a parliamentary committee in February 2023, in which Public Safety Canada’s 2021 Public Report was cited.
The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Sun for comment but didn’t hear back.
China’s Talent-Recruitment Schemes
Mr. Sun holds esteemed titles within the Canadian academic community, including being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He is a 2023 recipient of Western’s Distinguished University Professor award and has also been named as a Canada Research Chair for his nanomaterials research. He has been employed at Western since 2004.Simultaneously, Mr. Sun holds several academic roles within Chinese institutions. He was mentioned in a 2016 article on chinazhaokao.com, a Chinese website providing overviews of Chinese universities for the purpose of recruiting students. The article introducing Tianjin Normal University, in the city of Tianjin in northern China, said he had been a part-time professor there since 2005 and was appointed “Tianjin Municipal Distinguished Professor” in 2009. Mr. Sun was born in Tianjin.
The appointment is associated with a talent-recruitment program included among nearly 200 such programs listed in a 2020 Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report titled “Hunting the phoenix: The Chinese Communist Party’s global search for technology and talent.” ASPI said the list was released by China’s State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in 2018 and that the Chinese regime likely operates a lot more than 200 talent-recruitment programs.
According to the chinazhaokao.com article and various other open-source information from Chinese websites, Mr. Sun was also elected to the Tianjin Municipal TTP in 2013.
The TTP was the first and most prominent among the programs covered by the 2020 ASPI report, which also referred to it as the “Recruitment Program of Global Experts.” Other programs of similar names on the list include the Chinese Academy of Sciences Hundred Talents Project, the 1,000 Talents Plan of Shanghai, and Liaoning Province’s 10-100-1,000 Program for High-End Talents Introduction.
The FBI has warned about China’s talent plans, citing their potential involvement in “stealing trade secrets” and “breaking export control laws.” The TTP, initiated in 2008, is of particular concern to U.S. officials and has been described by the U.S. National Intelligence Council as a method of transferring technology from the United States to China through the recruitment of academics and researchers.
A 2019 U.S. Senate subcommittee report warned that TTP members sign legally binding contracts with Chinese institutions, a practice identified as part of the CCP’s strategy to exert “exceptional” control over the TTP and other talent plans and their members. These contracts may incentivize members to lie in U.S. grant applications, set up “shadow” research labs in China, and in some cases transfer U.S. scientists’ intellectual capital to China, the report said.
Besides Mr. Sun’s part-time position at Tianjin Normal University, as reported by the article on chinazhaokao.com, he founded the Institute of Advanced Electrochemical Energy at Xi'an University of Technology in 2017 and was appointed its director. He is also one of eight Canadian scholars elected as “foreign members“ of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an institution directly supervised by the State Council of China.
Helping to Secure Academic Employment
In his Shaanxi Daily interview, Mr. Sun spoke about his system for cultivating his students, by creating individualized learning and training plans based on each student’s aptitude and personal and career goals.As an example, he recommended Ph.D. student Zhao Yang to undertake postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. Subsequently, in 2021, Mr. Zhao obtained a position as an assistant professor within Mr. Sun’s department at Western.
“Teachers and students working in the same department were initially not allowed at our school. Zhao Yang and I can be seen as setting a precedent,” Mr. Sun told Shaanxi Daily.
Liu Jian, another example given, was selected by Mr. Sun to join his research group. Mr. Sun later recommended Mr. Liu to apply for a postdoctoral position at a U.S. national laboratory, the report said. Mr. Liu is now an assistant professor at the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.
Collaboration With Chinese State-Owned Company
Mr. Sun helped the China Automotive Battery Research Institute (CABRI), a Chinese state-owned company (SOE), establish a research institution in Canada in collaboration with Western. GLABAT Solid-State Battery Inc., located in the Western Research Park, officially opened on April 10, 2019, according to a Western press release.According to the release, GLABAT was born out of a 2017 collaboration between CABRI and Mr. Sun, which initially invested $3.35 million to create the Solid State Battery Research Joint Laboratory located in Mr. Sun’s labs in two engineering buildings at Western. Their five-year agreement began Jan. 1, 2018, with its first three years focused on lab-based discovery and the last two on application of the research.
CABRI also provided an additional $10 million in establishing GLABAT, according to the press release.
CABRI President Xiong Baiqing attended the 2019 opening ceremony at Western. In addition to his role at CABRI, Mr. Xiong served as deputy secretary of the CCP committee at CABRI’s parent company, the Grinm Group, formerly called the China General Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals. In a 2020 trial regulation, the Chinese regime mandated SOEs to establish “grassroots Party organizations” as part of ensuring CCP control.
The Grinm Group, specializing in the processing of nonferrous materials, has actively participated in major research projects in collaboration with the Chinese military. These encompass a range of areas including nuclear submarines, lunar exploration, and manned spaceflight, according to a page about the company on the China Alliance for Science Literacy (CASL) website. The Grinm Group is a member of the CASL, which has emphasized its mission to promote the CCP’s geopolitical ambition.
Concerns have been mounting over potential security risks associated with Canadian universities engaging in research collaborations with Chinese entities, especially those linked to the regime’s military.
In June, MPs passed a motion directing the House of Commons science committee to investigate government grants awarded to institutions involved in research partnerships with China, particularly in sensitive areas like artificial intelligence, quantum theory, biopharmaceuticals, and aerospace.
The Epoch Times reached out to Western University for comment but didn’t hear back.
