Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

FBI should open 300,000 posts to surveil Chinese students studying in the US, a spokesperson of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday amid a report on a Republican House member's proposal to create 56 new FBI agent slots to tackle so-called Chinese education espionage.

The bill claimed large amounts of Chinese students at US higher education institutions are doing espionage for the Communist Party of China. 

US senators and congressmen have all kinds of weird claims and proposals. The 56-person quota must be a severe underestimate as there are more than 300,000 Chinese students studying in the US, ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at Wednesday's routine press conference. 

"The House member should set 300,000 positions, or at least 150,000 to surveil them, which can at the same time solve the US' unemployment problem," Hua said. 

Many people are bewildered with US politicians' strange remarks because the US is facing a lot of urgent tasks domestically. US leaders had complained about their backward infrastructure; the real death toll of COVID-19 may way exceed 600,000 in the country; hate crimes against Asians skyrocketed in the past year.

But the politicians elected by Americans do not spend their time to address US problems but keep talking about China and coming up with ridiculous ideas, Hua pointed out.

What is the real threat the US faces? What they can do to improve Americans' lives, protect their health, safeguard their human rights and equality? US congressmen should think about it, Hua said.

Global Times