The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration has guarded against the theft of technology by the Chinese Communist Party and has scrutinized academics working with the Chinese side. But U.S. media recently reported that the DOJ is considering an Amnesty program that would allow U.S. academics to disclose past foreign funding without fear of consequences. Experts warn that the Biden administration should not ease up on monitoring and pursuing Chinese Communist Spies.
The Wall Street Journal revealed exclusively on 22 December that Justice Department officials have prepared a draft amnesty plan. Under this amnesty plan, U.S. academics could disclose past foreign funding without fear of punishment for their disclosures. The plan has not yet been implemented, and some prosecutors fear it could weaken existing cases, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Biden Administration officials have not yet indicated how they will handle federal funding cases against academic institutions, the newspaper said. But current and former officials have said “they do not anticipate significant changes in the way the department handles China-related issues.”
The report mentions the latest case of MIT professor Chen Gang, who was arrested for working for the Chinese. The university’s faculty and staff recently began speaking out against the criminal case.
Chen Gang faces three criminal charges: wire fraud, failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and making false statements on tax forms. But a group of 100 MIT professors recently sent a joint letter claiming that the charges against Chen Gang “interfere with normal research practices and academic freedom.
Since 2018, the Trump Administration has launched the China Initiative. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it aims to investigate and prosecute Chinese companies and individuals suspected of engaging in economic espionage. To date, federal prosecutors have filed more than 10 criminal cases accusing U.S. academics of lying about receiving funding from the Chinese government or accusing visiting scholars from China of concealing their ties to the Communist Party’s military, and some of the suspects have pleaded guilty.
The Chinese Communist Party specializes in what it calls “bending the rules” by stealing foreign off-the-shelf technology and then using copycat technology to defeat competitors. To this end, the CCP sends a large number of foreign students and visiting scholars to Europe and the United States to “learn” advanced technologies, while using the “Thousand Talents Program” and other so-called talent recruitment programs to lure European and American scholars to bring advanced technologies to China.
The Trump administration’s strict investigation of scholars who received funding from the Chinese government has effectively cracked down on the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to steal technology. But because most of the scholars investigated are of Chinese descent, Trump has also been attacked as “racist. Among the critics is Rep. Ted Lieu (D-La.), one of the sponsors of the recent impeachment of Trump.
On July 23, 2020, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R-Texas) said in a talk against Beijing that China is not a normal country and that “the truth is that our policies, which have reinvigorated China’s failing economy, have seen Beijing bite back at the international hand that feeds it.” He also quoted then-Attorney General William Barr, who said, “The ultimate attempt of China’s rulers is not to trade with the United States. It is to loot the United States.” He stressed that the United States should therefore be “distrustful and verifiable” in its dealings with the Chinese Communist Party.
Some scholars also believe that the Biden administration should not relax its monitoring and prosecution of Chinese Communist espionage.
June Teufel Dreyer, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, said, “It would be foolish for U.S. national security for the administration to lift restrictions, and it would not be welcome in the American public.”
She also emphasized that the charges and arrests of certain Chinese scholars “were not based on race, but on evidence of violations of the law.”
“Charles Lieber of Harvard, who was arrested by the FBI on similar charges, is not Chinese. About five years ago, there was also a professor at the University of Tennessee who was also not Chinese, but was arrested for the same thing. There was also Aldrich Ames and others who were arrested and charged not because of race, but because the FBI believed there was credible evidence that they had violated the law.” Goldfarb cited as an example.
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