Stanford University has been reportedly infiltrated by Chinese espionage activity, with the communist nation seeking to access artificial intelligence innovation happening on campus.

The revelations of Chinese spying at the elite school come from the Stanford Review, an independent student newspaper on campus, which reported that professors, students, researchers, and other affiliates have experienced brushes with Chinese state espionage.

An expert on China who spoke to the outlet said there are hundreds of students who are Chinese nationals on campus, with some reporting directly to the Chinese Communist Party. The nation has a law mandating that all citizens around the world support their espionage.

One student at Stanford who hails from China confirmed that many peers “have handlers,” a reality described as a “very normal thing,” since they “just relay the information they have.”

Matthew Turpin, the former United States National Security Council Director for China, said in comments to the Stanford Review that the Chinese government “spends a lot of time collecting data” on students overseas and maintains a “pretty good understanding of who is doing what.” There may be rewards for offering insights as well as punishments for withholding information.

Chinese officials are especially interested in frontier technology such as artificial intelligence. Stanford is an elite school with connections to Silicon Valley firms pioneering the technology.

The report from the Stanford Review comes after Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan and the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a letter informing Stanford University President Jonathan Levin that the school is a soft target for “espionage and intellectual property theft” because of international students.

Some members of Congress have backed legislation that would prevent Chinese nationals from obtaining student visas and attending postsecondary schools located in the United States.