Staff Reports
Peter Schweizer warned Thursday night that a quiet, systematic threat is unfolding under our noses: Communist China is gaming America’s student visa system to pry loose sensitive technologies, train future adversaries, and embed influence networks inside our institutions. His presentation at a Founders’ Roundtable — pulled from material in his new book, The Invisible Coup — laid out the pattern: what looks like ordinary academic exchange too often functions as a Trojan Horse for Beijing’s strategic goals.
Schweizer drills into one of the starkest examples — China’s large-scale program to send pilot cadets to U.S. flight schools, often on civilian student visas, to get training our own country then exports back to strengthen the Chinese military. These aren’t harmless internships; they are a pipeline that exploits American openness and taxpayer-funded infrastructure, putting advanced aviation skills in the hands of a geopolitical rival. That is not naive international education — it is national security malpractice.
He also uncovered how Beijing and its networks exploit birthright citizenship and “birth tourism” to manufacture American citizens with long-term political leverage, a scheme that should make every patriot furious. Schweizer describes Chinese families and networks deliberately gaming our laws — producing citizens who can be mobilized politically or carry influence back to authoritarian Beijing. If we allow birthright loopholes and sham student programs to persist, we are inviting foreign actors to shape our future electorate.
This pattern is part of a broader strategy he calls “weaponized immigration,” where foreign states and complicit elites use migration, visas, and legal loopholes to reshape American demography, politics, and security. Schweizer lays blame not just on foreign adversaries but on the American establishment that looks the other way, profits from the chaos, or actively facilitates these programs. That’s a damning accusation — and one our leaders ignore at the republic’s peril.
The danger isn’t hypothetical. Administrations across Washington have repeatedly greenlit programs and approvals without adequate scrutiny, allowing foreign-run training and influence efforts to operate on American soil. Conservatives must stop treating open borders and permissive visa policies as mere policy disagreements; this is about preserving sovereignty and preventing a foreign power from building capabilities inside our own country. The time for soft talk is over — oversight and enforcement are non-negotiable.
Patriotic Americans should demand immediate action: close the loopholes, audit flight schools and visa approvals, end birthright abuses, and hold accountable any official who enables foreign infiltration. This fight isn’t partisan trivia — it’s a struggle for the future of the United States. If we fail to defend our borders, our laws, and our institutions now, we will have only ourselves to blame when our children inherit a diminished, compromised republic.
