US programme targeting researchers with China links crumbling under intense scrutiny

Academics across the US have the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ‘China Initiative’ in their crosshairs as cases prosecuted under this programme are being dismissed after wreaking havoc on the lives and careers of researchers in the country. They argue that the policy – created in 2018 under the Trump administration to pursue theft of intellectual property by China – fosters a hostile environment for Chinese scientists and is tantamount to racial profiling.

The China Initiative has focused on researchers at US universities with undisclosed ties to China, for example through other universities, companies, or so-called state-sponsored talent recruitment programmes like the ‘Thousand Talents’ plan. But opponents of the policy say researchers who are Chinese immigrants or of Chinese descent have been unfairly targeted. They point out that the DOJ has had to drop many of these cases, which upended the careers of numerous scientists, because they were flimsy, often based on charges of wire fraud and making false statements to government officials.