U.S. Weighs Curbs on Chinese Telecom Firms Over National-Security Concerns

Huawei, ZTE caught in growing tech feud between Washington and Beijing

By John D. McKinnon

The U.S. worry about Chinese telecommunications companies is driven largely by longstanding concerns that the Chinese government uses the companies’ network equipment to spy on or disrupt U.S. networks. 

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering executive action that would restrict some Chinese companies’ ability to sell telecommunications equipment in the U.S., based on national-security concerns, said several people familiar with the matter.
The move, if it happens, would represent a significant escalation of a growing feud between the U.S. and China over tech and telecommunications. 

The affected firms likely would include Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp.

They have found themselves increasingly in an international crossfire.
Pentagon officials said this week that they are moving to halt the sale of phones made by the two companies on U.S. military bases around the world. 

U.S. officials are concerned that Beijing could order manufacturers to hack into products they make to spy or disable communications. 

The latest action could come in the form of a White House executive order, possibly in the next few weeks, people familiar with the matter said. 

One possibility under consideration has been curbing the ability of companies doing business with the U.S. government from using network equipment made by companies that could pose a national-security risk.
Significant complexities remain, however, including the exact scope of the possible order, and no final decisions have been made. 

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said officials “have no comment on the matter at this time.”
ZTE didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. 

Huawei declined to comment specifically on the potential executive order but said that security and privacy were key priorities for the company.
The effort is being driven largely by longstanding concerns that the Chinese government could use the companies’ network equipment to spy on or disrupt U.S. networks. 

The U.S. and several of its allies recently have stepped up scrutiny of how the Chinese firms’ equipment is used in networks.
The issue has played into broader friction over trade between the two countries. 

Longer-term, U.S. officials also are concerned about whether China or Western democracies will win the race to develop next-generation networks.
Already this year, the Commerce Department has banned American companies from selling products to ZTE, over its violation of previous sanctions involving North Korea and Iran. 

Huawei is under investigation by the Justice Department over similar concerns.
The Federal Communications Commission also recently launched a rule-making process that is expected eventually to lead to curbs—mainly affecting smaller and rural telecommunications firms—on providers’ ability to use federal universal-service funds to buy Huawei and ZTE equipment.
The administration also is beginning to look more closely at finding ways to restrict more kinds of technology transfers from U.S. firms to China.
Chinese officials have warned that they will take steps to retaliate if the U.S. intensifies its efforts against firms such as Huawei.
San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. has already been caught in the dispute, suffering a delay in its effort to acquire Dutch automotive chip maker NXP Semiconductors NV, a purchase the U.S. company needs to diversify its product line as the smartphone market plateaus. 

China, which has a say in the deal as one of several countries where the companies have substantial sales or assets, initiated the delay.
Some U.S. lawmakers of both parties are concerned about the possibilities for sophisticated electronic espionage.
Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, “does think we have to take seriously the risks potentially posed by Chinese telecom in our systems,” a spokeswoman said.
The U.S. and China also are locked in a duel over next-generation networks, with the U.S. aiming to block China’s ambition of developing the technology to build and run them around the world.
Still, the potential U.S. move also raises thorny questions, such as whether it should be limited to core network equipment, or extend to handsets, some industry officials said.
“Addressing global supply chain security concerns has long been a priority for the tech industry,” said Pamela Walker, a vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council, an advocacy group. 

“Moving forward, we urge policy makers to share information with suppliers and contractors so we can increase the level of security and assurance within the supply chain.”
Officials have considered whether security tests could be used to screen some suspect equipment—a move that could simplify the effort at one level, but also create new complications.
Huawei is the world’s biggest supplier of wireless equipment and No. 3 vendor of smartphones. 

The Shenzhen-based company has been all but shut out of the U.S. telecom market since a 2012 congressional report said its equipment could be used for spying.
ZTE recently has been the fourth-largest seller of smartphones in the U.S.

Sina Delenda Est: China installed missile systems on Spratly Islands

• China has installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its fortified outposts in the South China Sea
• The new coastal defense systems are a significant addition to Beijing's military portfolio in one of the most contested regions in the world.

By Amanda Macias 

A PLA Navy fleet including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, submarines, vessels and fighter jets take part in a review in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018.

China has quietly installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its fortified outposts west of the Philippines in the South China Sea, a move that allows Beijing to further project its power in the hotly disputed waters, according to sources with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence reports.
Intelligence assessments say the missile platforms were moved to the outposts in the Spratly Islands within the past 30 days, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The placement of the defensive weapons also comes on the heels of China's recent South China Sea installation of military jamming equipment, which disrupts communications and radar systems. 

By all accounts, the new coastal defense systems represent a significant addition to Beijing's military portfolio in one of the most contested regions in the world.
The United States has remained neutral – but expressed concern – about the overlapping sovereignty claims to the Spratlys.
"We have consistently called on China, as well as other claimants, to refrain from further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarization of disputed features, and to commit to managing and resolving disputes peacefully with other claimants," a Pentagon official told CNBC when asked about China's recent military activity in the area. 

"The further militarization of outposts will only serve to raise tensions and create greater distrust among claimants."
The recent intelligence, according to sources, indicates the deployment of anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles on Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. The Spratlys, to which six countries lay claim, are located approximately two-thirds of the way east from southern Vietnam to the southern Philippines.

Satellite photo of Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea taken on January 1, 2018.

The land-based anti-ship cruise missiles, designated as YJ-12B, allow China to strike surface vessels within 295 nautical miles of the reefs. 

Meanwhile, the long-range surface-to-air missiles designated as HQ-9B, have an expected range of targeting aircraft, drones and cruise missiles within 160 nautical miles.
The defensive weapons have also appeared in satellite images of Woody Island, China's military headquarters in the nearby Paracel Islands.
"Woody Island serves as the administrative and military center of China's presence in the South China Sea," Gregory Poling, Center for Strategic and International Studies fellow and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told CNBC in a prior interview.
"We assume that anything we see at Woody will eventually find its way farther south to more directly menace China's neighbors," he added.

A hotly contested part of the world
The South China Sea, which is home to more than 200 specks of land, serves as a gateway to global sea routes where approximately $3.4 trillion of trade passes annually.
The numerous overlapping sovereign claims to islands, reefs and rocks — many of which disappear under high tide — have turned the waters into an armed camp. 

Beijing holds the lion's share of these features with approximately 27 outposts peppered throughout.
Beijing's interest in developing the crumbs of land across the South China Sea is by no means new.
For instance, China first took possession of Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef in 1988 and has since outfitted the features with deep-water ports, aircraft hangars, communication facilities, administration offices and a 10,000-foot runway.
Last week, U.S. Navy Adm. Philip Davidson, the expected nominee to replace U.S. Pacific Command Chief Adm. Harry Harris, described China's increased presence in the South China Sea as "a substantial challenge to U.S. military operations in this region."
In written testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Davidson said the development of China's forward operating bases in the hotly contested waters appear to be complete.
"The only thing lacking are the deployed forces. Once occupied, China will be able to extend its influence thousands of miles to the south and project power deep into Oceania," Davidson wrote. 

"In short, China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States."
Davidson's comments echo a steady drumbeat of warnings made by Harris regarding China's growing strength.
Earlier this year, Harris told Congress that Beijing's impressive military buildup, including its pursuit of hypersonic weapons, could challenge the United States "across almost every domain."
"While some view China's actions in the East and South China Seas as opportunistic, I do not. I view them as coordinated, methodical and strategic, using their military and economic power to erode the free and open international order," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee.
Harris, whom President Donald Trump is reportedly set to nominate as U.S. ambassador to South Korea, currently oversees approximately 375,000 military personnel and is responsible for defending a theater that spans nearly half of the Earth's surface.
"Ladies and gentlemen, China's intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril," Harris said.

Chinese Nobel laureate's widow ready to die in house arrest

Liu Xia, wife of the late human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, says she has nothing left to live for
By Lily Kuo

Protesters display a portrait of Liu Xiaobo and his detained wife Liu Xia. 

Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, has said she is ready to die in protest at being held under house arrest in China for more than seven years.
“Now, I’ve got nothing to be afraid of. If I can’t leave, I’ll die in my home. Xiaobo is gone, and there’s nothing in the world for me now. It’s easier to die than live. Using death to defy could not be any simpler for me,” she said, according to a phone call on 30 April, recorded by her friend and exiled writer, Liao Yiwu, and posted online.

'I live like a plant': Nobel winner's wife 'going mad' under Chinese detention.

Liu, 50, has been under house arrest since 2010 after her husband, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel peace prize in absentia for his activism in China. 

Her husband, a civil rights campaigner, was jailed in 2009 for subversion and died last year from liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence.
In an excerpt of the 16-minute phone call with Liao, Liu is heard crying and cursing. 

“I’m so fucking angry that I’m ready to die here … If I’m dead, it’ll all be done with.”
At one point, Liu cries for several minutes. 

In the recording, Liao plays the song Dona, Dona, from a Yiddish song released during the second world war about a calf being led to slaughter.
“Please allow me to use Liu Xia’s sobbing as its new lyrics,” Liao wrote. 

“Dona, Dona, give her freedom. Dona, Dona, please cry out loudly for her.”
Advocates have repeatedly called for Liu’s release. 

A former civil servant and a poet, she has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. 

Chinese authorities insist she “enjoys all freedoms in accordance with the law”, but her movements have been severely restricted and she lives under constant surveillance.
During this time both of Liu’s parents died and she has been taken to hospital at least twice for a heart condition. 

According to the rights activists, Liu has told her lawyer about having severe depression.
After her husband’s death, Liu’s supporters hoped she would be allowed to leave the country.
“First they told her to wait until the party congress was over; next they told her to wait until the conclusion of the ‘Two Sessions’ in Beijing in March of this year,” Liao wrote in his post on the US-based human rights site, Chinachange.org, citing legislative meetings held late last year and this year.
Germany and the US have both called on China to remove restrictions on Liu and allow her to leave the country. 

But activists say Chinese authorities are likely to keep her silenced to prevent her from becoming a symbol or rallying point for other dissidents.
“The cruelty the Chinese government has shown Liu Xia is a chilling signal for human rights defenders across the country that Xi Jinping’s regime does not care about international pressure. She’s never been suspected, charged or convicted of a crime, but has lived in a prison for eight years,” said Frances Eve, a researcher with the advocacy group, Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Xi Jinping needs to let her go.”

Rogue Nation

France, Australia call on China to observe rules
By Trevor Marshallsea 

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, presents the Legion d’Honneur award to Australian war veteran William Mackay in Sydney, Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Macron is on a three-day visit to Australia. 

SYDNEY — French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday issued a reminder to China to respect a rules-based order in the South Pacific amid concerns about Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
Macron’s comments came during a three-day visit to Australia, during which the two nations signed a range of agreements, including a pact to strengthen defense ties.
The two leaders were also expected to discuss China’s growing influence in the South Pacific. Australia has become concerned about increasing Chinese investment in infrastructure projects in the area, especially reports — denied by Beijing — that it wants establish a permanent military base in Vanuatu. 

This follows China’s contentious claiming of islands in recent years in the South China Sea.
Macron was scheduled to depart on Thursday for New Caledonia, a French-controlled island near Vanuatu, which will hold a referendum in November on breaking away from France’s protection and becoming a republic.
While Macron and Turnbull did not specifically confirm they discussed China during their Sydney meetings. 

But when asked about Beijing’s South Pacific push at a joint news conference, the two leaders were eager to stress the need for lawful development in the area.
“China’s rise is very good news for everybody. It’s good for China itself, its middle classes, and it’s good for global growth, and regional growth,” Macron said. 

“What’s important is to preserve a rules-based development in the region, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, and to preserve the necessary balances in the region.”
“And it’s important not to have any hegemony in the region,” he said.
Turnbull said the economic rise of China was made possible “by a ruled-based order in our region”.
“We welcome further Chinese investment in our region. We welcome the benefits of the growth of China. But of course we are committed to the maintenance of the rules-based international order, to good governance, strong standards, that will enable us all to continue this remarkable arc of prosperity that has been enabled by that rule of law,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull cited an oft-used quote from former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew in pushing for mutual respect among nations in Asia, saying “big fish cannot eat little fish, and little fish cannot eat shrimps.” 

Macron added: “And especially New Caledonian shrimps.”
France is the only European nation with direct territorial links to Pacific region countries, which play a role in its defense building. 

It has more than 1.5 million citizens and 8,000 military personnel spread across several territories in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Macron said he was keen for France to build a broader strategic relationship with Australia. 

Already, a French company Naval Group is building Australia’s new fleet of 12 submarines at a facility in Adelaide, under a deal worth $36.3 billion.
Also as part of Macron’s visit, France and Australia signed pacts to strengthen military ties, both through cooperation in maritime activities and the establishment of an annual Franco-Australian defense industry symposium.
Macron also expressed a desire for France to be “at the heart” of the Indo-Pacific region.
“I believe we have one shared goal, that is to turn our two countries to place them at the heart of a new axis, an Indo-Pacific axis,” Macron said.
Asked about growing tensions about Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, Macron said that regardless of Trump’s May 12 decision a new agreement should be negotiated with Teheran.
Macron, who told the United Nations last September that the current deal was not sufficient, said it should be broadened to address three new main areas — Iran’s nuclear activity after the current deal expires in 2025; improvements in the monitoring and controlling of Iran’s domestic nuclear activity, and to have better containment of Iranian activity in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
Macron, who visited Washington last week, said Trump responded “positively” to his recent suggestion for a new agreement while he had also “exchanged about that” in the past few days with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Macron said whatever Trump’s coming decision, a broader deal was needed because “nobody wants a war in the region and nobody wants an escalation in terms of tension in the region.”
With trade talks also a key part of the visit, Macron said France would support formal talks on a free trade deal between Australia and the European Union after it found solutions to concerns it had on agriculture.
The countries also signed agreements to counter cyberwarfare and on committing to strategies addressing climate change, including working to make coral reefs in the Pacific more resilient.
Macron also used a ceremony commemorating Australia’s wartime cooperation with France to highlight a global worldview as a counter to nationalism.
A week after criticizing Trump’s “America first” policies on his trip to Washington, and hours after a May Day gathering of European anti-immigration populist leaders and violent right-wing protests in his home country, Macron said the Australia’s wartime sacrifice in Europe should serve as “a powerful message at a time when nationalism is looming, entrenched behind its borders and its hostility to the rest of the world.”
“No great nation has ever been built by turning its back on the world,” he said.

China's influence operations in Australia are growing

• A migrant agent who advertises in an independent Chinese-language newspaper had officers from the country's security agency camp in his Beijing office for two weeks, harassing him to end his advertising.
• Other advertisers in Australia have been called into Chinese consulates to have hourslong 'tea chats' in efforts to cut funding for critical independent media.
• Obedient Apple requested its ads not run in two independent Australian newspapers for fear of angering China.

By Tara Francis Chan

Forget Russia.
Attempts by China's Communist Party to influence international politics and societies are increasingly causing alarm worldwide.
In Australia alone, a book critical of China's influence attempts struggled to get a publisher, the federal government drafted a bill making foreign interference and political donations illegal, and a former adviser to the prime minister even spoke on the matter with the US House Armed Services Committee.
While some of China's covert actions have been difficult to pinpoint publicly, Maree Ma, the general manager of Australia's Vision Times Media, recently described how the Chinese government is successfully interfering with the operations of Australian media companies.
Speaking at an event at the Lowy Institute attended by Business Insider, Ma said Chinese-language media in Australia faces unique pressures that other ethnic media don't. 

She then described one incident which illustrated how China is trying to silence independent Chinese-language news in Australia.
"We have a migration agent who has an office both here in Australia and also in Beijing. He is actually very close to us, he's been doing ads with us for quite a few years," Ma said.
"But since he's had his Beijing office — a couple of weeks before he pulled his ad contract from our newspaper — the Chinese State [Security] bureau was actually camping in his office for about two weeks, constantly harassing him to the point where he couldn't really do much work."
After describing the "pressures" he was facing from China's intelligence and security agency, the advertiser then pulled his ads "in our paper in Australia, all the way in Australia," Ma said.
Ma, who recently made a closed submission to the federal government with more examples of foreign interference, also described how advertisers based in Australia have been targeted.
"Some of our advertisers have been pulled into the Chinese consulate, I won't say which one, but [one advertiser] was grilled for three hours for a 'tea chat.' She was told not to tell anyone," Ma said.
Such actions by China's government appear to be a means of intimidating and cutting financial support for independent journalism, in the hope enough advertisers boycott a publication, forcing it to either close or accept state funding and editorial input.
They also serve as a warning, encouraging companies to self-censor their advertisements.
And it's a ploy that may have worked in the past.
For more than two years, telephone carriers have not advertised Apple products in two independent Australian Chinese-language newspapers, reportedly at Apple's request. 

Ma believes the newspapers have been blacklisted for political reasons as the tech giant wants to protect its business in China.

Checkbook Diplomacy

China dangled $3 billion to grab Taiwan ally Dominican Republic

By Jess Macy Yu, Ben Blanchard
A police officer stands next to the Dominican Republic flag (L) inside the Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei, Taiwan, May 1, 2018. 

TAIPEI/BEIJING -- China offered the Dominican Republic a $3.1 billion package of investments and loans to get them to sever ties with Taiwan, a Taiwan official said on Tuesday, after the Caribbean nation switched allegiance to China in a diplomatic blow to the self-ruled island.
China said there were no economic pre-conditions.
Taiwan, claimed by China as its own, has formal relations now with only 19 countries, many of them poor nations in Central America and the Pacific like Belize and Nauru. 

China says Taiwan is simply a wayward province with no right to state-to-state ties.
China and Taiwan have tried to poach each other’s allies over the years, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations, though Taipei struggles to compete with an increasingly powerful China.
Panama ended its long-standing relationship with Taiwan last year in a major diplomatic victory for China. 

The Vatican is next on the list, as the Holy See and China edge closer to an accord on the appointment of bishops in China.
The news on the Dominican Republic switch, announced in both Beijing and Santo Domingo, drew strong and swift condemnation from Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
“President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic has ignored our long-term partnership, the wishes of the people of the Dominican Republic, and the years of development assistance provided by Taiwan, to accept false promises of investment and aid by China,” Wu told reporters.
“(Taiwan) strongly condemns China’s objectionable decision to use dollar diplomacy to convert Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. Beijing’s attempts at foreign policy have only served to drive a wedge between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, erode mutual trust and further harm the feelings of the people of Taiwan.”
A Taiwan Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that, according to initial calculations, China dangled at least a $3.1 billion package of investments, financial assistance and low-interest loans for the Dominican Republic, which shares an island with Haiti to the west.
That included $400 million for a new freeway, $1.6 billion for infrastructure projects and $300 million for a new natural gas power plant.
“It was a cost that Taiwan could not match,” the official said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the move was a political one with no economic pre-conditions, but that now they have established ties, China will “proactively promote mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas”.
A person who answered the telephone at the Dominican Republic’s Beijing representative office said it did not know about the situation and declined further comment.
China has stepped up the pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, as president. 

Beijing fears she will push for Taiwan’s formal independence, but Tsai says she wants to maintain the status quo.
The Dominican Republic had been a diplomatic ally of the Republic of China -- Taiwan’s official name -- for 77 years, including when the government ruled all of China before being forced to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communists.
Taiwan’s presidential office said that despite the severe challenges, the government would not bow its head in pressure to Beijing, and vowed to do all it could to protect Taiwan’s interests.
The Taiwan official said the Dominican Republic move was not unexpected.
“We’ve always known things were not looking rosy here,” the official said.

The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, lauded the decision as in line with the trend of the times and history, in comments to reporters in Beijing at a hastily arranged news conference.
“This important and correct decision by the Dominican Republic absolutely accords with the basic interests of the country and its people,” Wang said. 

“We highly appreciate this.”
The Dominican Republic said it had taken the decision after a long process of consultation, taking its needs and potential into account, according to a statement on the president’s website.
It said that even without formal diplomatic ties, China was already its second largest supplier of imported products.
“Of course we know that now we’re establishing diplomatic relations, the growth potential of our trade links is immense,” presidential legal adviser Flavio Dario Espinal said.
Espinal said that the government was grateful to Taiwan.
“We are deeply grateful for the cooperation we’ve shared for years,” he said. 

“However, history and the socioeconomic reality force us now to change direction.”
In Taipei, Wu said China had failed to follow through on its promises to former Taiwan diplomatic allies, including $140 million in aid to the small West African country of Sao Tome and Principe in late 2016.
“Developing nations should be aware of the danger of falling into a debt trap when engaging with China,” he said.
Neither Wang, nor Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado, who stood by his side at the Beijing news conference, took questions from reporters.
Speaking in March, Wang said it was in the best interests of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies to recognize an “irresistible trend” and ditch Taipei in favor “one China” ruled by Beijing.

White House Considers Restricting Chinese Researchers Over Espionage Fears

The Trump administration is considering measures to block Chinese from performing sensitive research at American universities and research institutes

By ANA SWANSON and KEITH BRADSHER

The Trump administration is considering restrictions on students and researchers from China over concerns that they could be sharing American technology and trade secrets with the Chinese. 

WASHINGTON — It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie: In April, China is said to have tested an invisibility cloak that would allow ordinary fighter jets to suddenly vanish from radar screens.
This advancement, which could prove to be a critical intelligence breakthrough, is one that American officials fear China may have gained from a Chinese researcher who roused suspicions while working on a similar technology at a Duke University laboratory in 2008. 

The researcher, who was investigated by the F.B.I., ultimately returned to China, became a billionaire and opened a thriving research institute that worked on projects related to those he studied at Duke.
The Trump administration is considering strict measures to block Chinese from performing sensitive research at American universities and research institutes over fears they may be acquiring intellectual secrets, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
The White House is discussing whether to limit the access of Chinese to the United States, including restricting certain types of visas available to them and greatly expanding rules pertaining to Chinese researchers who work on projects with military or intelligence value at American companies and universities. 

The exact types of projects that would be subject to restrictions are unclear, but the measures could clamp down on collaboration in advanced materials, software and other technologies at the heart of Beijing’s plan to dominate cutting-edge technologies like advanced microchips, artificial intelligence and electric cars, known as Made in China 2025.
The potential curbs are part of a broad set of measures necessary to combat a growing national security threat from China, which is pressuring or coercing American companies into handing over valuable trade secrets. 

But blocking Chinese’s access to American laboratories over fears of spying would be a significant escalation in the Cold War with the Chinese over which nation will claim technological dominance.
The details are still under discussion and it is not known how many people could be affected, but restrictions would probably fall most heavily on graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and employees of technology companies in the United States on temporary visas. 

More than one million foreign students study in the United States each year, with roughly one-third coming from China.
The restrictions would cover Chinese nationals, but with two exceptions: those with green cards, which give them the right to permanent residency in the United States, and those who have been granted asylum because of persecution in their home country. 

Also exempt would be former Chinese nationals who renounce their citizenship and become naturalized Americans.

The student-spies: Chinese graduates in New York in 2016. 

This week, a delegation of administration officials, including the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, will head to China for discussions to help avoid a brewing trade war. 

But additional curbs on Chinese could make those tough discussions even harder.
President Trump has threatened tariffs on roughly $150 billion of Chinese goods in retaliation for unfair trade practices — a proposal that sparked tariff threats of China’s own. 

The administration is expected to detail new plans for restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States by the end of May. 

Congress is also considering giving the United States broader authority to restrict Chinese investments.
These measures could prompt more retaliation from China, which has already promised to place tariffs on at least $50 billion of American products. 

They also appear to be fueling anti-American sentiment within Chinese borders. 

China has tightened measures against possible spying, even posting public service announcements in subway trains warning citizens to watch foreigners for signs of espionage.
In America, research institutes look particularly vulnerable to espionage. 

According to Defense Department statistics, nearly a quarter of all foreign efforts to obtain sensitive or classified information in 2014 were routed through academic institutions. 

At a congressional hearing in April, Michelle Van Cleave, a former national counterintelligence executive, said the freedom and openness of the United States made the country a “spy’s paradise.” 

Chinese and Russian agents both come to the United States with “detailed shopping lists,” she added.

Trump administration officials fear technologies with military applications could make their way to China.

Administration officials have been debating restricting visas offered to Chinese for months as part of the broad package of measures targeting China economically. 

But the new plan under discussion by the White House would be a much more targeted measure, and one with potentially big consequences for American industry. 

While the Obama administration also proposed barring foreign students from company-sponsored research at American universities with national security implications, the Trump administration’s measures could apply more broadly to private research facilities as well as new products and technologies.
The United States already restricts who can work on sensitive technology. 

Researchers on projects deemed classified are carefully vetted and must obtain security clearances. The next level down are research projects that are subject to so-called export controls — including many with potential military applications, such as computer programs and hardware that might be used to model nuclear explosions. 

Universities and companies working on this material need to obtain a special license from the government to employ foreign researchers.
These products do not need to leave the United States to fall under export rules. 

All it takes to trigger export controls is for citizens from certain countries — including China, Russia and many former Soviet republics — to be involved in almost any way. 

That ranges from physical possession of the product to written descriptions and even verbal discussions of it. 

The administration is considering broadening the range of goods and services traded with China that would be subject to these so-called deemed export rules.
If the proposal is approved by the Commerce Department, and ultimately by Mr. Trump, American companies and universities would be required to obtain special licenses for Chinese who have any contact whatsoever with a much wider range of goods — making it harder for Chinese to work on a range of scientific research and product development programs.
Fueling the push are instances like the one involving Ruopeng Liu, a Chinese student at Duke who was helping to develop a cloak that shields objects from a broad spectrum of wave frequencies. 

The professor leading the Pentagon-funded lab, David R. Smith, became suspicious of Liu, who seemed intent on collaborating with old colleagues in China, and even invited them to tour the lab and photograph Duke’s equipment.
It became clear that Liu was trying to share the cutting-edge technology he was studying in the United States with colleagues in China. 

The institute he founded on his return to China eventually received millions of dollars of investment, registered thousands of patents and even played host to Xi Jinping.
Liu did not respond to interview requests, but in past interviews, he has maintained that he did nothing wrong, beyond taking advantage of an open and collaborative university atmosphere. 

Like many projects in the United States, most of Mr. Smith’s work at Duke was early-stage research that was not classified or categorized as a deemed export.
Daniel Golden, who tells Liu’s story in his book, “Spy Schools,” said Liu exploited a gray area that allows a large amount of sensitive, taxpayer-funded technology to flow to foreign governments. 

“Globalization has transformed American universities into a front line for espionage,” Mr. Golden said.