In harrowing testimony before Congress on Thursday, a Stanford University junior detailed a sophisticated and terrifying campaign of transnational repression she says was orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on American soil.
Elsa Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Stanford Review, told lawmakers that she and her family are currently being physically monitored by foreign agents — a threat she claims her university has met with “reluctance” and indifference.
Johnson, an East Asian studies major who grew up in a Chinese-language immersion school, explained that her ordeal began during her freshman year while she was working as a research assistant for the Hoover Institution. A man identifying himself as “Charles Chen” contacted her via social media, using a profile curated with Stanford-related imagery to build a veneer of legitimacy.
What began as inquiries into her background quickly escalated into a high-pressure intelligence operation. Chen attempted to lure Johnson to Shanghai with a pre-paid flight itinerary and insisted she move their communications to WeChat, an app notoriously monitored by Chinese state security.
The situation took a chilling turn when Chen publicly commented on Johnson’s Instagram in Mandarin, demanding she delete screenshots of their conversation — information he should have had no way of knowing she possessed.
The FBI later told Johnson that “Chen” was likely an operative for China’s Ministry of State Security and may have targeted at least ten other female students since 2020.
After Johnson published an investigation on the incident, she said the intimidation escalated. She described receiving “intimidation calls” in Mandarin, including one in which the caller referenced her mother.
This past fall, the FBI warned Johnson that she and her family were under physical surveillance by the CCP.
Despite the gravity of the threat, Johnson testified that Stanford University has been largely missing in action. When asked by lawmakers about the university’s response, Johnson noted that while administrators sent a perfunctory email claiming to take the matter seriously, they ultimately told her “there’s nothing they can really do about it.”
When asked whether Stanford’s Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access, and Community — a DEI-focused department — offered any assistance, Johnson said it did not.
“I was a freshman navigating a foreign intelligence operation with no institutional support,” Johnson told the committee, noting that the university failed to refer her case to law enforcement, prompting her to seek out the FBI on her own.
Meet @ElsaJohnson, an American undergraduate junior at Stanford University who faced transnational repression (as well as her family!) from the Chinese Communist Party including online and physical surveillance on campus.
Our universities have become soft targets for foreign… pic.twitter.com/pOc5GuJrND
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) March 26, 2026
Johnson called for American universities to establish secure, anonymous reporting mechanisms for transnational repression, warning that without them, students remain “vulnerable” to foreign adversaries. “American universities are supposed to be places where people can think and speak freely,” Johnson concluded. “Right now, for many students, they are not.”
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