For US scientists, China Initiative looms large
Anming J. Chen in the US Department of Commerce: “It’s Final,” she said in a written response to the DoJ
Jenny Lee, a social scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies research collaboration and geopolitics, says that the climate of fear and anxious researchers is still going strong. The US government has various anti-China policies. And although the DoJ is pursuing fewer criminal charges, it says that it will work increasingly with federal agencies to investigate researchers and issue civil and administrative penalties for noncompliance. Sources tell Nature that universities are taking a more active role in assisting investigations.
A senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union says the settlement shows the government will be held to account for discrimination and profiling.
Chen’s win should encourage other scientists who have been targeted to fight for justice and compensation, says Anming Hu, a nanotechnology researcher at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Hu was indicted for hiding ties with China in 2020, and was put under house arrest for around two years before being acquitted of all charges.
The criminal charges were dropped by the DoJ because of their weaknesses. Chen was fired in 2016 from her job. She filed a complaint of discrimination with the Department of Commerce (DoC), under which the National Weather Service is housed, but it was rejected. On appeal, however, a judge found she was a “victim of gross injustice” resulting from her prosecution and dismissal. In 2019, Chen filed a civil lawsuit against the DoJ for wrongful prosecution and to seek compensation. Chen filed a complaint against the DoC for arresting and investigating her.
In part of the settlement, the DoC will meet with Chen to hear her opinions on the wrongdoing and reforms that have been put in place. The DoC will give Chen a letter acknowledging her accomplishments as a hydrologist.
“The Commerce Department is finally being held responsible for its wrongdoing,” said Chen in a statement. Nature requested a comment from the DoC.
Hu is fighting the US government in a different way. The lead prosecutor in the Hu case was nominated by Biden to be the US attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Hu has been trying to block the nomination, arguing that Arrowood cannot be trusted to apply the law in a fair and just manner, given his prosecution of Hu despite weak evidence.
Why universities should play a role in the US government’s investigation of Chinese research: A case study of an engineer arrested in January 2021 under the China Initiative
He says this is only the beginning of what genuine accountability looks like. He says that the apologies mean a lot to those who have been impacted.
“I’m sorry to say that it has only intensified,” says Gang Chen, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who was arrested in January 2021 under the China Initiative, only for the DoJ to drop the charges a year later. He and others who have had their lives upended by the initiative have been speaking out about the damage that it has done.
One example of a university taking a more active role in the initiative’s wake was reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune in December 2022. Xiang-Dong Fu, a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), was forced to quit his position after the university accused him of hiding ties to China. He was guilty of violating the conflict of commitments policy by accepting travel reimbursements from Chinese institutions that he had visited and failing to report Chinese grants that bore his name. Fu denies any wrongdoing, according to the Tribune.
They don’t agree with the idea that universities are unfairly targeting researchers of Chinese heritage. Toby Smith is vice-president for science policy at the Association of American Universities (AAU), and he said US institutions acknowledge the research contributions of these scientists. Universities are working to ensure that all faculty members are disclosing information properly, he adds.
He would like to see US funding agencies provide greater clarity for universities on what constitutes appropriate and fair sanctions.
Scientists need support, says Gisela Kusakawa, executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, a non-profit organization based in New York City. She wants universities to provide training for scientists on how to complete disclosure forms, as well as giving scientists the ability to revise their completed forms to make sure they are correct.
The narrative that scientists from China are potential spies has been perpetuated by several policies and positions adopted by the US government. The US Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, which increases the budget for research and innovation by an extra US$280 billion and also includes measures to tighten research security. The minimum amount of US institutions required to report gifts from a foreign government has been reduced.
Chen is afraid of applying for federal research funding, because the government used the forms against him before. To feel more secure, he has switched from researching nanotechnologies with obvious commercial applications to doing more-fundamental science, exploring the solar evaporation of water. He also rarely answers e-mails from researchers or students in China who write asking questions about his research papers.
The FBI is not the only country that steals intellectual property, but does it try to steal it. A United States prosecuted for spying in China
Around 4:30 p.m., at which point the interview had been going for a few hours, Hull suggested taking a break to eat some pizza that he had ordered for everyone. He also made Hua an offer: The F.B.I. wouldn’t recommend that charges be brought against him if he agreed to cooperate and take part in a counterintelligence operation against the Chinese. Hua had already been informed that the F.B.I. had been carrying out a search at his home that afternoon, while he was being interviewed; his car had also been towed away to be searched. And here at work, the agents had already caught him lying, which he realized was enough to land him in trouble. The documents downloaded to his laptop were marked as export-controlled, which meant he could face criminal charges for the information he had shared at his presentation. He knew what he had to do to save himself and his family.
“No one begrudges a nation that generates the most innovative ideas and from them develops the best technology,” John Demers, former assistant attorney general for national security, said in a 2018 hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. We cannot tolerate a nation that takes our brainpower.
The accusation that China has been relentlessly stealing intellectual property from American companies and institutions — although China is now a manufacturing giant, for technology it still relies heavily on the United States and Europe — is neither new nor unfounded. A Chinese-born engineer named Chi Mak was sentenced in 2008 to 24 years in prison for passing on information about sensitive technologies that he had obtained while working for a defense contractor. The Chi Mak investigation led to the uncovering of the Chinese spy who gave thousands of documents to China, including designs and technical specifications for American fighter jets, the Delta IV rocket and the space shuttle. In the past ten years, people working for Chinese organizations have been caught taking or trying to take trade secrets. One notable case involved six Chinese nationals in the United States attempting to steal proprietary corn seeds from fields in Iowa and Illinois. A California engineer named Walter Liew was caught stealing secrets relevant to the production of titanium dioxide, which is used as a whitener in paint and toothpaste. Chinese nationals have been indicted in the past for stealing proprietary information relating to locomotives, solar panels and other high-tech products.
In recent years, China has been recruiting those it considers expat nationals through hundreds of formal “talent” programs, which identify experts in American schools and industries to help fill specific gaps in knowledge back home. A former counterintelligence agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative says it is a way to induce them to travel to China to attend conferences and provide lectures, which allows their chance to develop a relationship with them and get intellectual property.
The guests can usually be found in luxury hotels where they are driven around in limousines and taken on sightseeing tours. Some people feel obligated to provide information that may have not been planned for after receiving this treatment. Many engineers and scientists of Chinese origin were interviewed by Gaylord while he was at the F.B.I. They said that they had been pressured. “They would say: ‘Everything in my presentation was approved by my company. A group of students surround me to ask questions after I stepped down. And they were pushing me for more sensitive data. “And a lot of them say: ‘You know, after a while, you start to break down. You can’t keep saying, “I can’t talk about this.” You then start answering around the edges, giving away more and more.’”
