Eric Tucker
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is taking down the name of a Trump-era initiative to combat Beijing’s economic espionage but has been criticized for unfairly targeting U.S. colleges over China over race professor.
The Justice Department’s top national security official announced on Feb. 23 the decision to drop the “China Initiative” and raise the bar for prosecution of professors. The plan has been under a months-long scrutiny after complaints that it weakened academic collaboration and fostered anti-Asian bias.
The department has also suffered high-profile setbacks in individual prosecutions, leading to the dismissal of multiple criminal cases against academic researchers last year.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said the department would still “persistently defend our country from China,” but would no longer classify its investigations and prosecutions under the “China Initiative” label, in part The reason is the recognition that the United States faces threats from Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc.
“I believe we need a broader approach, one that can look at all these threats and use all of our power to fight them,” he told reporters ahead of a speech detailing the changes.
The program was established in 2018 under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop what officials said was China’s aggressive efforts to steal American intellectual property and spy on American industry and research.
Olson told reporters he believed the initiative was motivated by genuine national security concerns. He said he did not believe investigators would target the professor on the grounds of race, but he also said he had to respond to concerns he heard, including from Asian Americans.
“Any impression that the Department of Justice is applying different standards based on race or ethnicity harms the Department of Justice and our efforts, and it harms the public,” Olson said.
Speaking later in the day at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law, Olson said, “By categorizing cases under the heading of China’s initiative, we are contributing to a pernicious perception, That is (the Department of Justice) using a “lower standard” for the investigation and prosecution of crimes related to this country, or we somehow have a different view of people with racial, ethnic or family ties to China. “
Some Asian-American groups and officials who had lobbied the department to end the China Initiative cheered the move. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the initiative undermined careers and prevented Asian Americans from pursuing academic majors in science, technology, engineering and math, And reinforces “harmful stereotypes.”
“Our nation faces serious national security issues from around the world, but our response must be based on evidence, not racism and fear,” Zhu said in a statement.
The initiative has led to convictions, including the conviction in December of Harvard professor Charles Lieber for concealing his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment scheme.
But its pursuit of professors, including those accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government when applying for federal research grants, has hit a snag. Last year, the department dismissed multiple cases against the researchers or were dismissed by judges.
In January, the department dropped the case against MIT professor Gang Chen, who was charged in the final days of the Trump administration. Prosecutors concluded they could no longer bear the burden of proof after they received information from the Department of Energy that he was not required to disclose certain information on his forms.
In September, a federal judge dismissed all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of concealing ties to a Chinese university while receiving research funding from NASA, which has since offered to reinstate him.
Olson said the department’s continued support of its pending cases against academics and researchers suggests that those prosecutions won’t necessarily be dropped.
Federal prosecutors are still expected to bring grant fraud cases against researchers when there is evidence of malicious intent, serious fraud, and relevance to economic and national security, and prosecutors in the Washington Department of National Security play an active oversight role—although in In some cases, Olson said, prosecutors may choose a civil or administrative settlement over criminal charges.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech in January that the threat from China was “more outrageous” than ever, with the FBI opening new cases every 12 hours or so to fight back Chinese intelligence operations. Olson said he agreed.
“I’m not giving up any tools here,” Olson said. He also noted, “I see no reason to back down from this threat and we won’t back down from this threat.”
