A Trump-era Department of Justice initiative that critics say unfairly targets Chinese Americans is ending, but some say the damage has already been done.
The “China Initiative” was launched in 2018 when the DOJ was run by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The program was intended to defend the United States against what officials believed to be intellectual property theft conducted by the Chinese government, but it has been criticized for unfairly targeting Chinese scientists in the U.S., and some say the practice of targeting Chinese scientists predates the initiative.
One scientist, Xiaoxing Xi, a physics professor at Temple University, was indicted on federal criminal charges in 2015, after being accused of sharing restricted American technology with China. The charges have since been dropped.
But Xi says that he still sees the ramifications of the charges in his life. “Even though all the charges against me were dropped, it’s not like life will be back to before … The so-called normal is never the same.”
The FBI arrested Xi, who came to the U.S. from China three decades ago, at his home in an early morning raid. His wife and children were held at gunpoint by armed agents, according to the American Association of University Professors.
Xi and others now say they fear of prosecution has made scientific research more difficult for Chinese professors and researchers. “You have to do a lot of things, fill a lot of forms, check a lot of boxes. Every time you do that, you wonder whether any sentences that you write or anything that you say may not be perfect, and that can lead to trouble,” said Xi.
Many fear that the program may turn foreign scientists away from the U.S. and threaten the nation’s ability to attract academic talent.
The Justice Department never publicly defined the China Initiative. Cases that fell under the initiative frequently concerned research integrity issues such as paperwork omissions—some due to unclear rules—rather than economic espionage or national security issues. In fact, only 10% of the cases charged the defendant with economic espionage, allegedly the primary target of the initiative. Furthermore, 39% of research integrity cases were brought against medical researchers whose studies focused on topics such as heart disease and arthritis, the national security implications of which are unclear. The Justice Department has been reluctant to release data and details about the cases prosecuted as part of the initiative.
Xi called the program a “perfect example of racial profiling” and cites the fact that “there have been so many cases involving Chinese scientists that the government dropped or lost.”
Despite federal prosecutors convicting more than 90% of defendants across all federal criminal cases, only 27% of defendants prosecuted specifically under the China Initiative have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Additionally, nearly 90% of defendants charged under the program have been of Chinese heritage.
Despite the apparent end of the China Initiative, the Justice Department will continue its efforts to target the actions of the Chinese government, actions that it believes to be espionage and security threats. It will also continue to prosecute the program’s remaining cases. Some scientists have raised concerns that anti-Chinese racial profiling will continue as well. Many are concerned about the human toll of such targeted attacks.
“Having the name of China,” in such a program, said Xi, “puts a target on the back of any Chinese scientist.”
SAMPAN, published by the nonprofit Asian American Civic Association, is the only bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in New England, acting as a bridge between Asian American community organizations and individuals in the Greater Boston area. It is published biweekly and distributed free-of-charge throughout metro Boston; it is also delivered to as far away as Hawaii.