Researcher Charged With Visa Fraud for Not Disclosing Continued Ties to Military

According to the Department of Justice, a visiting Chinese researcher at Stanford University has been charged with visa fraud for failing to disclose her relationship with the Chinese military. In December 2018, Song Chen, 38, entered the United States using a J-1 nonimmigrant visa. A J-1 visa is issued to individuals participating in work-and-study-based exchange visitor programs. In her visa application submitted in November 2018, she described herself as a neurologist who was coming to Stanford University to conduct research related to brain disease. She disclosed that she served in the Chinese military from September 2000 to June 2011, and that her current employer was a Beijing hospital named “Xi Diaoyutai.” On July 17, an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agent, Joyce Blalock, stated in her affidavit filed in support of the federal investigation: “Open source research showed Song’s continued affiliation with the PLA Air Force (People’s Liberation Army) in a variety of capacities well past her stated termination date of June 2011.” The open-source research included five scientific papers published between 2012 and 2018 that she co-authored. In two of the papers, Song was affiliated with the Fourth Military Medical University (FMMU) in Xi’an, the capital of northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province. According to FMMU’s website, the university changed its name to the Air Force Military Medical University in 2017 and the school is subordinate to the Air Force branch of the PLA. The three other papers showed her affiliation to the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing, which has the same address as the Beijing hospital that she stated in her visa application. The research also found a photo of Song dressed in a Chinese military uniform with insignia, on her profile page that appears on the Chinese health site “cnkang.com.” The link to her page, which was included on the affidavit, is no longer accessible. According to the affidavit, the insignia on her uniform represented civilian cadres of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Citing China’s Ministry of National Defense, the PLA consists of “active military personnel who have been appointed to junior professional technical positions or clerical ranks and above.” According to the affidavit, the same photo also appeared on her profile page on another Chinese medical information website “youlai.cn.” Additionally, a 2015 academic conference held by the PLA Medical Science and Technology Commission listed Song’s name as one of the conference’s points of contact, with the same phone number that was also listed on her visa application. On July 13, Blalock and another unnamed FBI agent interviewed Song at her U.S. residence after a search warrant was issued by the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. During the interview, Song repeatedly denied any current affiliation with the Chinese military. According to the affidavit, she stated: “I think it’s better I keep silent” when confronted with the photo showing her in Chinese military uniform. Blalock stated: “I believe that Song was intentionally misleading when she claimed no association with the PLA Air Force and could not provide articulable reasons to explain her continued affiliation with elements of the Chinese military.” The FBI also recovered several deleted documents from her external hard drive seized by the agents. According to the affidavit, a deleted letter from Song was sent to the Chinese consulate in New York where she wrote that her employer “Xi Diaoyutai Hospital” was a false front. Additionally, she explained in the letter that she had obtained approval from the PLA Air Force and FMMU to extend her stay in the United States for a year in January 2020. Finally, she said in the letter that she couldn’t send the military approval documents via the internet to the consulate because they were classified. On the morning of July 20, Song made her initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim to face the charge of obtaining a visa by material false statements. According to the Depa