US sets sights on Harvard professor and universities over Chinese funding amid heightened fear of IP leaks
- Charles Lieber, charged with lying over his ties to China, received US$50,000 a month and US$1.5 million to start a research lab in Wuhan, prosecutors allege
- ‘This is a new front,’ one expert says. ‘This wake-up call is far louder because of who this person is, his ethnicity and the institution for which he works’
The Trump administration is adopting increasingly aggressive tactics in its bid to counter Chinese theft of trade secrets with the arrest of a prominent Harvard professor and high-profile investigations into top universities.
The move against one of the nation’s foremost scientists – Charles Lieber, chairman of the Harvard chemistry department – and the threat of criminal charges against Harvard, Yale and other prestigious universities over reporting violations has sent shock waves through the staid scientific establishment.
Unlike many other recent cases involving scientists of Chinese descent, Lieber is Caucasian. He and leading universities are also being accused of failing to disclose ties to China rather than actual espionage or industrial theft.
“This is a new front,” said Kei Koizumi, a science consultant and White House science and technology adviser in the Obama administration. “This wake-up call is far louder because of who this person is, his ethnicity and the institution for which he works.”
Anyone who has collaborated with Chinese colleagues could become a target. And once you become a target, it’s not pretty
“Now it affects everyone,” Koizumi added, “not just Chinese or other Asians like myself”.
But the Trump administration’s hardening stance is also calling into question the cost to American competitiveness if cowed researchers stop collaborating with top foreign talent, especially Chinese students and scientists.
