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US drops case against MIT professor accused of ties to China
By ERIC TUCKER January 20, 2022 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department dropped charges Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government, a further setback to a federal initiative that was set up to prevent economic espionage and theft by Beijing of trade secrets and academic research.
The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a filing in federal court in Boston, saying it could no longer meet its burden of proof.
...
The initiative has resulted in some significant guilty pleas and convictions, and did score a high-profile win last month with the conviction of a Harvard University professor on charges that he hid his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.
But other big cases brought as part of the China Initiative have faltered.
A federal judge in September, for instance, threw out all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA, and the university has since offered to reinstate him.
Critics of the China Initiative have called for the Justice Department to shut the program down. The department’s top national security official, Matthew Olsen, met Wednesday with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, who expressed their concerns...
US drops case against MIT professor accused of ties to China
By ERIC TUCKER January 20, 2022 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department dropped charges Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government, a further setback to a federal initiative that was set up to prevent economic espionage and theft by Beijing of trade secrets and academic research.
The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a filing in federal court in Boston, saying it could no longer meet its burden of proof.
...
The initiative has resulted in some significant guilty pleas and convictions, and did score a high-profile win last month with the conviction of a Harvard University professor on charges that he hid his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.
But other big cases brought as part of the China Initiative have faltered.
A federal judge in September, for instance, threw out all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA, and the university has since offered to reinstate him.
Critics of the China Initiative have called for the Justice Department to shut the program down. The department’s top national security official, Matthew Olsen, met Wednesday with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, who expressed their concerns...
