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Trump’s targeting of Chinese academics likely will not last after DOJ review -Breaking

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© Reuters. FILEPHOTO: Charles Lieber, along with two Chinese citizens, was taken out of federal court in Boston after they were accused of lying about their supposed links to the Chinese government. The incident took place on January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Katherine Taylor/File photo

(Refils to change the official title of the advocacy organization)

Jane Lanhee Lee, Nate Raymond, Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has completed a review on an enforcement program aimed at fighting Chinese espionage. Former officials and critics believe that the examination will lead to a change in its controversial targeting academic researchers.

Former U.S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions spearheaded the so-called China Initiative, which was created during Trump’s Trump presidency in 2018. The department stated that the goal of this initiative was to counter “Chinese security threats” and it has achieved its primary purpose.

Previous administrations had probed academics over alleged sharing of proprietary information to China. Trump Justice Department expanded this investigation to include U.S. universities’ professors who disclosed Chinese financial connections when applying for federal grants. It also examined visiting Chinese scholars affiliated with military universities.

After several lawsuits against researchers collapsed and backlash from civil rights organizations and lawmakers who claimed the program facilitated racial profiling by Chinese scientists, Biden Justice Department began a review.

    Former officials and stakeholders say they expect the Justice Department will shift away from prosecuting professors, cases that university faculty say have chilled research and scared Chinese American academics.

Amid concerns about anti-Asian rhetoric, they also want the department’s name to be stripped of “China”.

Ted Lieu of California, a U.S. Representative said that “the cases against professors were not related to spying and espionage.” “It was racial profiling.”

Matthew Olsen (director of the National Security Division) has been reviewing the proposal and will likely complete it “soon,” according to a Justice Department spokesperson.

Olsen and Lieu met with other members of Congress Asian Pacific Caucus last month to discuss this initiative in the midst of its review.

Lieu declared that “he definitely understood our worries.”

Both supporters and opponents of the program say that the department will not abandon it completely and instead focus on investigations into state-sponsored trade secrets theft and espionage. This could leave some critics unhappy.

    “For us certainly, any sort of rebranding of the China Initiative and simply dropping the name China from it would not be enough for us,” said John Yang, the head of the Asian American Justice Center.

Key officials from the Justice Department still support the China Initiative, including Christopher Wray (FBI Director), who stated in recent speeches that the FBI has more than 2000 trade theft cases open and that a case is opened for China each 12 hours.

Wray stated that China is the greatest threat to ideas, innovation and economic security.

FALSE EVIDENCE

China Initiative is responsible for a variety of notable cases. These include the case against Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzzhou in a bank fraud trial. One case in which Chinese officials were accused of hacking American firms and another where Operation Fox Hunt was filed by the department alleging that Chinese officials visited the U.S.A to harass dissidents so they would return home to face criminal charges.

The controversy over the academic cases has affected the reputation of the program.

Charles Lieber (a Harvard University professor) was convicted of hiding his connections to China during federally-funded research.

However, almost half the cases against academics were founded on false premises or evidence. This led to at least 9 prosecutions in 20 cases ending in dismissal or acquittals.

Recently, Gang Chen was cleared by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after prosecutors conceded that they couldn’t prove that he had concealed ties with China during his search for federal grants funds.

Moreover, a November survey by Chinese American advocacy group https://www.committee100.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/C100-Lee-Li-White-Paper-FINAL-FINAL-10.28.pdf Committee of 100 and the University of Arizona found about 42% of non-U.S. citizen Chinese scientists say they are now inclined to leave the United States because of the China Initiative and the FBI investigations.

Andrew Lelling was a former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney under Trump. He said that he supported China Initiative but now believes the department should move away from academics.

He said that universities are now more focused on transparency and that it has had an impact on how academics communicate information about each other.

All international collaborators fear that they will not be disclosed by their researchers.

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