Dozens of scientists were fired or resigned as the U.S. government tries to root out suspected Chinese espionage from American universities and laboratories.
The National Institutes of Health revealed Friday that 54 scientists lost their jobs over a failure to disclose financial ties to foreign governments. An overwhelming majority — 93% — of those cases involved funding from a Chinese institution, according to Michael Lauer, the deputy director for extramural research at NIH.
The investigation, which is not yet complete, targeted 189 scientists at 87 institutions. Lauer described a majority of cases as involving an Asian man in his 50s. More than 75% of cases investigated had active NIH grants. Scientists failed to disclose a foreign grant in 70% of the cases and a talents award in 54% of the cases.
Researchers and students, especially Chinese nationals and those of Chinese descent, have been under increased scrutiny from the United States over the Chinese government’s espionage capabilities, particularly in scientific fields. U.S. officials said in February that the number of arrests related to Chinese espionage cases had risen dramatically from previous years.
In response, Republican senators have proposed a ban on issuing visas to Chinese graduate students and researchers in science and technology fields. Meanwhile, House Democrats have raised concerns that ethnically Chinese scientists working in the U.S. are being racially profiled. They asked the FBI and NIH in February to provide more information on the investigations into scientists and researchers who are suspected of passing information to China.
The Trump administration announced last month it would revoke thousands of visas held by Chinese graduate students and researchers in the U.S. who had ties to universities affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military.
Lauer said Friday that nearly 400 scientists are of “possible concern,” and 121 have been flagged by the FBI. Another 44 have come under suspicion of their own institutions.
China has exploited its access to American research labs and academic institutions through its Thousand Talents Program, which seeks to recruit academics to gain access to proprietary information. The FBI has said the efforts are a form of “nontraditional espionage.”
The Justice Department launched the China Initiative in 2018 to combat the espionage threat, and the U.S. has arrested and charged a number of scientists who have participated in the Thousand Talents Program, including Charles Lieber, the chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry department.
“To be clear, this is not about the Chinese people as a whole, and it sure as heck isn’t about Chinese Americans as a group,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said earlier this year. “But it is about the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.”
