University partnerships with China: America’s tech transfer pressure point -- China Boss update 12.17.21
Update (*China Boss will break for the holidays from 12.20.21 to 1.02.22)
What happened this week.
Former Harvard professor Charles Lieber’s trial began Tuesday. He is charged with six federal charges related to his dealings with the Chinese government.
Prosecutors alleged that, starting in 2012, Mr. Lieber participated in China’s Thousand Talents program and was under contract to be paid up to $50,000 a month to work at the Wuhan University of Technology, advising students and researchers there. Instead he told both Defense Criminal Investigative Service agents and the National Institutes of Health in 2018 and 2019 that he was never asked to be a part of the Chinese program, the indictment alleged.
Why it matters.
Although international talent recruitment is not illegal, the U.S. Department of Justice views China's Thousand Talents Program (TTP) as a high risk for economic espionage and technology transfer.
From the D.O.J.’s China Initiative webpage:
About 80 percent of all economic espionage prosecutions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) allege conduct that would benefit the Chinese state, and there is at least some nexus to China in around 60 percent of all trade secret theft cases.
The Department of Justice’s China Initiative reflects the strategic priority of countering Chinese national security threats and reinforces the President’s overall national security strategy. The Initiative was launched against the background of previous findings by the Administration concerning China’s practices. In March 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced the results of an investigation of China’s trade practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. It concluded, among other things, that a combination of China’s practices are unreasonable, including its outbound investment policies and sponsorship of unauthorized computer intrusions, and that “[a] range of tools may be appropriate to address these serious matters.”
But there has been significant pushback against the program from American universities. In September, “a group of nearly 200 Stanford faculty wrote a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for him to end the Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” according to Stanford Review, an independent university newspaper. Large faculty groups at UC Berkely, Temple University, and Princeton, as well as Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and the APA Justice group and another association, the Asian American Scholar Forum, have also endorsed the letter, according to the Stanford faculty group’s website.
Earlier this month, MIT Technology Review conducted an "investigation" of the China Initiative in which it concluded that the program has "strayed from its initial mission." The MIT report has been cited by other universities and media outlets - like, Nature, and Bloomberg - in news articles relating to the Lieber trial even though China Boss has reviewed each of its points and considers them spongy. For a precise articulation of the weaknesses in the Stanford group’s position, and by extension that of the MIT investigators, click here.
It should also be noted that MIT received over $125 million - the highest amount of money donated from China to a Research 1 university to date. MIT writers did disclose that sum, as well as other possible conflicts of interest, in their report.
What others are saying.
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