NEWS | IN DEPTH1306 10 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6573 science.org SCIENCECREDITS: (PHOTO AP PHOTO/CHARLES KRUPA; (DATA U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICET
he arrest of Charles Lieber on 28 Janu-
ary 2020 drew worldwide attention
to the Department of Justice’s China
Initiative, launched in November 2018
amid concerns that China was im-
properly benefiting from U.S.-funded
research. Lieber, who was the chair of Har-
vard University’s chemistry department at
the time of his arrest and celebrated for his
research on nanomaterials, is one of 23 U.S.
academics, most of them of Chinese descent,
who have been targeted under the initiative.
Like most of the other defendants,
Lieber is not accused of espionage or theft of
intellectual property—two concerns driving
the China Initiative. Instead, when his trial
begins on 14 December in a Boston federal
courtroom, prosecutors will try to persuade
a jury that Lieber lied about his ties to a Chi-
nese university and failed to report income to
tax and banking authorities.
The trial comes amid calls from academics,
Democratic lawmakers, and others for U.S.
Attorney General Merrick Garland to end or
at least curtail the China Initiative. Critics say
the government shouldn’t be seeking crimi-
nal convictions of scientists who may have
only failed to properly document all of their
research support—errors that might typically
draw civil or administrative penalties. “Lack-
ing evidence of more serious wrongdoing,[Lieber] has become the target of a tragically
misguided government campaign [that has]
criminalized them,” wrote some 40 of Lieber’s
colleagues, including seven Nobel laureates,
in a March letter to Garland.
The government’s track record in such
cases is mixed. In the past 2 years, eight
academic scientists have received prison
sentences of up to 37 months after pleading
guilty to various charges, mostly involvingfailure to disclose financial ties to Chinese
institutions. Only two, a husband and wife at
Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus,
Ohio, were charged with stealing trade se-
crets. Last summer, the government dropped
its prosecution of seven scientists, six of
whom faced charges of violating U.S. immi-
gration law, and its case against one scientist
who returned to China before his indictment
is unlikely to move forward. (Federal investi-
gators have also brought charges against doz-
ens of scientists working in industry.)
Prosecutors lost the first case against an
academic that went to trial, that of mechani-
cal engineer Anming Hu. (Hu is weighing a
reinstatement offer from the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, which had fired him.)
Now, court watchers are waiting to see how
prosecutors fare against six other research-
ers who have elected to go to trial (see chart,
below), with Lieber’s case the next in line.
The six charges against Lieber are linked
to interactions with the Wuhan University of
Technology (WUT). In late 2011, according
to the indictment, Lieber agreed to become
a “strategic scientist” at WUT and to lead a
new “WUT-Harvard joint nano key labora-
tory” there. Several months later, according
to the government, Lieber agreed to join a
Chinese foreign talent recruitment program.
Together, prosecutors say, the new positions
provided him with a monthly salary of up
to $50,000, $150,000 in living expenses, and
$1.74 million over 3 years in research funding.
In most instances, it is not illegal for U.S.
academics to receive foreign support. But the
government alleges Lieber violated federal
requirements to report such arrangements toTrial of Harvard chemist poses
test for U.S.’s China Initiative
Prosecution of Charles Lieber “misguided,” critics say
SCIENCE AND SECURITYChemist Charles Lieber says he is innocent of charges
that he failed to fully disclose financial ties to China.By Jeffrey MervisThe China Initiative heads to court
Six academic researchers are preparing to contest an array of federal charges, including defrauding federal
research agencies and making false statements. Two have been fired and two suspended without pay.NAME AND INSTITUTION* CHARGES ARRESTED TRIAL DATEUNIVERSITY STATUS
AFTER ARREST
Charles Lieber
(Harvard University)False statements to Department
of Defense (DOD), National Institutes
of Health; false reportingJanuary
202014 Dec.
2021Suspended
with paySimon Ang (University
of Arkansas)Wire fraud on NASA, DOD grants;
false statementsMay 2020 7 Feb.
2022TerminatedZhengdong Cheng
(Texas A&M University)Defrauding NASA, false statements August
20204 A p r.
2022TerminatedFranklin Tao (University
of Kansas)Wire fraud on Department of Energy
(DOE), National Science Foundation
(NSF) grants; false statementsAugust
201918 Apr.
2022Suspended
without payGang Chen (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology)Wire fraud on DOE grant,
false reportingJanuary
2021Not
scheduledOn leave
with pay
Mingqing Xiao (Southern
Illinois University)Wire fraud on NSF grant,
false reportingMay 2021 Not
scheduledSuspended
without pay
*at time of arrest