A Stanford University student told Congress on Thursday that Chinese Communist Party operatives have physically monitored her on campus, referenced her mother in intimidation calls, and pressured her to destroy evidence, while the university largely left her to handle it alone.
Elsa Johnson, a junior majoring in East Asia studies and editor-in-chief of the Stanford Review, testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about what she described as a sustained campaign of “transnational repression” targeting her and at least 10 other female students since 2020.
“I’m here because I was personally targeted by a suspected agent of the Chinese Communist Party while conducting research at Stanford,” Johnson told the committee, as per the New York Post.
The alleged targeting began during her freshman year while she was researching Chinese industry and military tactics at the Hoover Institution. A man calling himself Charles Chen contacted her via social media, offering a paid trip to China and asking for personal background information. He then commented publicly on one of her Instagram posts in Mandarin, demanding she delete screenshots from their conversation.
“I do not know how he knew I had these screenshots,” Johnson said.
The FBI confirmed Chen was not affiliated with Stanford and investigated him as an operative of China’s Ministry of State Security.
The harassment escalated after Johnson began publishing investigative reporting on the suspected espionage. She said she received intimidation calls where callers switched to Mandarin mid-conversation, threatening scam emails pressuring her to take down her reporting, and, most recently, a call from a suspected CCP operative just last week.
“This fall, the FBI informed me that I am being physically monitored on Stanford’s campus by agents of the CCP and that my family is also being watched,” Johnson testified.
Johnson said she was “a freshman navigating a foreign intelligence operation with no institutional support,” and accused Stanford of being “very reluctant to engage” with her concerns. The Hoover Institution ultimately connected her with the FBI, not Stanford itself.
A Stanford spokesperson pushed back in a statement to The Post, saying the university “takes any allegations of undue foreign influence seriously” and claimed it “immediately contacted the FBI when it first learned of the concerns.” The spokesperson said Stanford has a tipline for reporting foreign influence, though Johnson testified no such resource was made available to her.
Johnson’s testimony was part of a broader House hearing examining Chinese espionage operations targeting American colleges and universities.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), who chairs the committee, has pressed university administrators on their handling of foreign influence operations on campus. The hearing follows a series of federal indictments involving alleged Chinese nationals stealing research from U.S. institutions.
