Chen Song, Visa Fraud, California 2021

Stanford University Researcher Busted for Visa Lies

A federal grand jury in San Francisco, California, issued a superseding indictment charging Chen Song with visa fraud, obstruction of justice, destruction of documents, and false statements in connection with a scheme to conceal and lie about her status as a member of the People’s Republic of China’s military forces while in the United States, the Justice Department announced yesterday.

Chen Song, 39, a Chinese national, entered the United States on Dec. 23, 2018, using a J-1 non-immigrant visa to conduct research at Stanford University. Song obtained the J-1 visa, a document ‘for individuals approved to participate in work-and study-based exchange visitor programs’ with an application she submitted in November 2018.

According to the superseding indictment, Song described herself as a neurologist who was coming to the United States to conduct research at Stanford University related to brain disease. As part of the application, Song stated that she had served in the Chinese military only from Sept. 1, 2000, through June 30, 2011. She further stated that her employer was ‘Xi Diaoyutai Hospital’ located at ‘No. 30 Fucheng Road, Beijing, 100142,’ and that her highest rank was ‘STUDENT.’

The superseding indictment alleges that these were lies, and that Song was a member of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese military, when she entered and while she was in the United States, and that the hospital she listed on her visa as her employer was a cover for her true employer, the PLA Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.

The superseding indictment also adds allegations and charges of obstructive conduct by Song. Specifically, the superseding indictment alleges that Song found out about a case against another PLA member, who was charged on June 7, 2020, in the Northern District of California with visa fraud. The superseding indictment alleges that she then attempted to delete a digital folder of documents on an external hard drive that she possessed containing records relating to her military service and visa fraud.

U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson for the Northern District of California said, ‘We allege that while Chen Song worked as a researcher at Stanford University, she was secretly a member of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army.’

Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said, ‘Members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army cannot lie on their visa applications and come to the United States to study without expecting the FBI and our partners to catch them.’

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