Elsa Johnson, a Stanford University junior and editor-in-chief of The Stanford Review, testified in Congress that she believes she and her family were targeted by a Chinese government-linked effort to intimidate her, including online outreach, threatening messages and warnings from the FBI about possible physical surveillance.
Elsa Johnson, a junior at Stanford University and editor-in-chief of The Stanford Review, testified before a congressional committee on Thursday, March 26, 2026, describing what she said was a campaign of transnational repression connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
In her testimony, Johnson said her concerns began during her freshman year while she was working as a research assistant at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. She told lawmakers she was contacted on social media by a man who identified himself as “Charles Chen” and appeared to be connected to Stanford, using Stanford-themed images to bolster his credibility.
Johnson said the conversation quickly shifted from basic questions about her background to persistent efforts to move their communications to WeChat, which she described as monitored by Chinese authorities. She also said the man tried to entice her to travel to Shanghai with what she described as a prepaid flight itinerary.
Johnson told the committee the situation escalated further when the account publicly commented on her Instagram in Mandarin, demanding she delete screenshots of their conversation—screenshots she said she had not mentioned publicly.
According to Johnson’s account, the FBI later told her the person using the “Charles Chen” name was likely connected to China’s Ministry of State Security and may have approached at least 10 other female students since 2020.
Johnson also said that after she published an investigation about the incident, she began receiving intimidating phone calls in Mandarin, including one that referenced her mother. She testified that in the fall, the FBI warned her that she and her family were under physical surveillance linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Johnson criticized Stanford’s response. She told lawmakers that administrators sent an email saying the university took the matter seriously but ultimately told her “there’s nothing they can really do about it.” She also said Stanford’s Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access, and Community did not assist her, and that the university did not refer her case to law enforcement—prompting her, she said, to contact the FBI herself.
“I was a freshman navigating a foreign intelligence operation with no institutional support,” Johnson told the committee.
Rep. Elise Stefanik later highlighted Johnson’s account on social media, describing U.S. universities as “soft targets” for foreign adversaries.
Johnson urged universities to create secure, anonymous channels for reporting suspected foreign intimidation. “American universities are supposed to be places where people can think and speak freely,” she said. “Right now, for many students, they are not.”
