Abolish Trump-Era China Initiative, Academics Urge Amid Racial Profiling Criticism | American universities

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Calls are mounting to abolish a controversial Trump-era initiative that searches for Chinese spies in U.S. universities, which critics say has led to racial profiling and hurt technological competitiveness.

In a letter sent to the Justice Department, 177 faculty members from 40 departments at Stanford University called on the US government to stop implementing the China Initiative. They argue that the program harms academic freedom by racial profiling and unfairly targeting Chinese academics.

The letter follows the acquittal last week by a U.S. federal judge of a researcher accused of concealing ties to China while receiving grants funded by U.S. taxpayers.

We understand the importance of addressing concerns about Chinese government sanctioned activity, including intellectual property theft and economic espionage, the Stanford academics wrote. We believe, however, that the China Initiative has strayed significantly from its claimed mission: it undermines the US’s competitiveness in research and technology and fuels prejudices which, in turn, raise concerns about profiling. racial.

On Thursday, a Tennessee federal judge acquitted Anming Hu, a Chinese-born nanotechnology expert at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who was accused of covering up his connections to Beijing as he sought research funding for work on a NASA project. The judge said the US government had failed to prove his case.

Given the lack of evidence that the defendant was aware of such a broad interpretation of the Nasas China funding restriction, the court concludes that, even considering all the evidence in the most favorable light of the government, no The rational jury could not conclude that the defendant acted with a ploy to defraud NASA, wrote U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan in a 52-page decision.

Anming Hu, nanotechnology expert at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Photograph: Caitie McMekin / AP

In response to the ruling, the Justice Department said we respect the court ruling, although we are disappointed with the outcome, according to US media. Hus’s attorney, Phil Lomonaco, said the academic is now focused on reclaiming his permanent position at the University of Tennessee.

Many universities should have learned from the experience the professor had to endure, Lomonaco said. The Justice Department must take a step back and reassess its approach to investigating Chinese professors in American universities. They are not all spies.

There is a better way

The high-profile lawsuit came after a string of arrests of US-based researchers who had been accused of failing to properly disclose their work in China in recent years. After a jury standoff, the Hus case ended in an overturned trial in June. An FBI agent admitted to using false information to justify setting up a team of agents to spy on Hu and his son for two years, according to local reports.

The Trump-era China Initiative began in 2018. To justify such an operation, the Justice Department said on its website: The Justice Department’s China Initiative reflects the strategic priority of countering threats to Chinese national security and strengthens the president’s comprehensive national security strategy. It also publishes a list of successful prosecutions, the latest being May 14.

But critics say that while it is necessary for the United States to protect its national security, such a program that targets an entire ethnic group would result in discrimination against Asian Americans, especially those of Chinese descent.

On July 30, 90 members of the United States Congress urged the Department of Justice to investigate what they called the repeated and unwarranted targeting of individuals of Asian descent for alleged espionage, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland .

Last week, Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu asked the Justice Department to apologize to Hu. You should stop discriminating against Asians. You should investigate your prosecutors for engaging in what looks like racial profiling. If Hus’s last name was Smith, you wouldn’t have carried this case, he wrote.

The recent round of appeals came in the wake of growing violence against Asians in the United States. According to an FBI annual report released last month, the number of reported crimes against people of Asian descent increased by 70% last year, to a total of 274 cases.

Margaret Lewis of Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey, who called on the US government to rethink its approach to research security, said: The US should not first engage in rhetoric that feeds xenophobia and racism.

It worries me that people with certain characteristics may be suspected, she said. Let’s not pretend that there is no worry about Beijing, but there is a better way. Getting rid of the name is the first step.

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