The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 22 that U.S. Justice Department officials are considering an Amnesty program for U.S. researchers who concealed information about the Thousand Talents Program.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday (Jan. 22) cited sources familiar with the matter as saying that Justice Department officials are considering an amnesty program that would implement a “truthful disclosure for non-punishment” policy for U.S. researchers who concealed information about the Thousand Talents Program, allowing U.S. scholars to disclose past foreign funding without fear of punishment for disclosure.
Senior Justice Department officials, including Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers, have discussed the plan in recent months and have circulated a draft, people familiar with the matter said.
The amnesty proposal under consideration is similar to a federal government program more than a decade ago that was designed to encourage Americans with Swiss bank accounts to report them when the IRS was stepping up efforts to recover billions of dollars lost to overseas tax evasion.
Justice Department officials’ consideration of the amnesty program was to allow the U.S. government to address the issue of both supporting international academic collaborations and simultaneously ensuring that researchers disclose the source of foreign funding; the U.S. allows academics to work with and receive funding from foreign entities, but requires that those involved must disclose those relationships when applying for U.S. government grants, the paper said.
The administration of former President Trump has been taking action against multiple instances of improper access to U.S. academic research funding associated with entities related to the Chinese Communist government, while warning U.S. universities to be wary of Chinese Communist infiltration on their campuses.
Since mid-2019, U.S. federal prosecutors have filed more than a dozen criminal cases accusing U.S. academics of lying about receiving funding from the Chinese Communist government or accusing visiting Chinese researchers of concealing their ties to the Chinese Communist Party military. Some of those cases have already resulted in guilty pleas.
People familiar with the matter said the plan under discussion would allow Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators to determine the extent of foreign funding for U.S. research, while helping to focus investigations on those they believe pose the greatest national security threat, Hua Ri reported.
But the plan has not yet been implemented, and some prosecutors are concerned that the move could weaken existing cases.
The Biden administration has just taken office and has not yet made clear how they will handle cases against U.S. scholars who take funding on both ends. Current and former Justice Department officials said they do not anticipate major changes in the department’s handling of issues related to the Communist Party, the report said.
Gang Chen, director of MIT’s Pappalardo Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory and director of the Solid State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), was arrested on the 14th. (Photo from MIT official website, screenshot from U.S. Department of Justice official website / Da Ji Yuan composite)
The U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to prosecute China-related collaborating scholars is being opposed by some faculty groups and Chinese American groups. They claim it is an act of misinterpretation of common, harmless professional activity by the U.S. government.
About 100 faculty members from MIT signed a letter sent to MIT President L. Rafael Reif Thursday evening (21) expressing their concerns about the FBI’s prosecution of their colleague, nanotechnology expert Chen Gang.
Chen Gang, 56, was born in China and has taken U.S. citizenship. He is charged with wire fraud, failing to file foreign bank account reports and making false statements on his tax returns. According to Boston’s top prosecutor, Chen Gang’s actions appear to be motivated by his loyalty to China (the Communist Party of China).
The charges allege that Chen Gang has been cooperating with the Chinese Communist government since at least 2012. He was invited by the Chinese Consulate General in New York to serve as an “overseas expert. He also became a recruiter, worked for Communist authorities, participated in Chinese programs to recruit scholars in the U.S. who contributed to China’s scientific and technological innovation activities, and served in other roles with the government and other Chinese entities.
Chen also took steps to hide some of these ties, including asking an MIT colleague to remove any reference to his involvement in the Communist Party’s China Talent Plan from documents about a thermal energy company he set up in China, the prosecution said.
Since 2013, Chen has received $19 million in federal funding from the U.S. government. During that Time, he also received $29 million in foreign funding, including $19 million from a Chinese public research university funded by the Chinese Communist government. Prosecutors say he had a bank account in China.
Chen Gang “concealed most of (the above) relationship from MIT. MIT requires academic researchers to file a conflict of interest disclosure and outside professional activity report at least once a year.
Chen was arrested last Thursday (14) at his Home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Chen refused to plead guilty and was subsequently released after posting $1 million bail.
In a statement on the 14th, MIT said it was “deeply saddened” by Chen’s arrest. “MIT believes that scientific integrity is a fundamental responsibility, and we are gravely concerned about undue influence in the field of American research,” the institute said. The institute said. “Professor Chen’s long and highly respected career in the research community makes the government’s allegations against him all the more distressing.”
MIT has pledged to cover the legal costs of Chen Gang’s lawsuit.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the issue is not that the researchers worked with a foreign entity per se, but that someone lied about it.
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