The university denied U.S. taxpayer dollars were directed toward the program, while Missouri’s governor and the House China panel chairman raised concerns.
A new Strategy Risks report alleges that Missouri State University has trained Chinese defense-linked executives, government officials, and state-owned enterprise personnel through China-focused MBA and EMBA programs for more than two decades, with U.S. taxpayer support.
The report, titled “Heartland for Hire,” says the Missouri public university operated a pipeline that had trained more than 1,500 current and future managers for Chinese state-owned enterprises and government bodies by 2018.
Strategy Risks said some graduates went on to senior roles in China’s defense industry, strategic supply chains, and surveillance-technology sector, including at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, known as AVIC.
The taxpayer-support claim is disputed. Strategy Risks based its estimate on Chinese recruiting materials and Missouri State records, not on public U.S. records confirming taxpayer payments. The report says no public U.S. record confirms that taxpayer money was paid.
Missouri State denied in its statement to The Epoch Times that taxpayer dollars were directed toward the program.
The university also said the report acknowledges that students studied a “conventional business curriculum” and that there was “no evidence of espionage, intellectual property theft, misconduct, false affiliations, or complaints of harassment.”
“Students admitted to the program were required to comply with all student visa regulations administered by the U.S. State Department,” the university said.
Officials Raise Concerns
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office said it is reviewing the report.
“China is one of our nation’s most hostile and subtle adversaries,” Gabby Picard, the governor’s communications director, told The Epoch Times.
Picard said Kehoe does not support policies that aid the Chinese Communist Party in “stealing intellectual property, enhancing their national defense, disadvantaging Missouri businesses, providing intelligence on U.S. or Missouri government operations, or any other matter that provides strategic or tactical advantages, including in the public higher education system.”
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said Missouri State’s program fits a broader pattern of Beijing using U.S. academic access for strategic gain.
“Missouri State’s program is another example of how China is exploiting our nation’s open society and using our academic institutions to advance its military modernization,” Moolenaar said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“University administrators across the country must be vigilant and only engage in open and honest educational exchanges that teach all students about the horrors of the CCP’s actions and ambitions, rather than aiding and abetting our nation’s biggest strategic competitor,” he said.
The Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development referred questions to Missouri State University.
By Arthur Zhang
