Foreign media: The US Department of Justice officially dropped the charges against Chinese professor Chen Gang

According to the latest Reuters news, the US Department of Justice officially withdrew the charges against Chen Gang, a Chinese-American professor at MIT, on January 20, local time. Earlier, the US Department of Justice had accused the professor of concealing its relationship with China when seeking federal appropriations, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the US side to stop making up excuses to smear and suppress China and stop interfering with and undermining normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States in the field of science and technology and humanities. Reuters said the latest move by the US Department of Justice is the latest setback encountered by the so-called "China Action Plan" of the United States.

Screenshot of the Reuters report

Federal prosecutors in Boston said in a court filing that the new evidence weakened the charges faced by Chinese-American professor Chen Gang. The newly appointed prosecutor, Rachel Rawlings, said in a statement that prosecutors had determined that they could no longer prove their case at trial. Rawlings said the charges were dropped "for the sake of justice."

Chen Gang's lawyer, Robert Fisher, said he "has disclosed everything he should have disclosed and he has never lied to the government or anyone else." The report also said that all the faculty at MIT supported Chen Gang, and the school also paid Chen Gang's legal fees.

As early as a few days ago, US media disclosed that US prosecutors were seeking to withdraw charges against Chen Gang, a Chinese-American professor at MIT, about "not disclosing relations with China". In the past year, eight indicted persons linked to the U.S. Department of Justice's China Action Plan have been dropped. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: I have noted relevant reports. I will not comment on the judicial cases of the US side. I would like to emphasize that the Chinese government has always maintained that relevant talent exchanges and cooperation should be based on abiding by the law, upholding scientific integrity and abiding by professional ethics, and that relevant policies and measures are not fundamentally different from the common practices of various countries.

There is an old Chinese saying that if you want to add to your sins, you can't say anything. The SO-called "China Action Plan" of the US Department of Justice first sets up case-handling targets and then investigates and handles cases, which will only lead to unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. According to reports, in the past two years, the vast majority of the typical case compilations of the plan do not involve intellectual property rights and commercial theft, and this practice of disregarding judicial justice and unjustifiably imposing charges has aroused strong opposition and condemnation from righteous people around the world. Nearly 2,000 scholars from universities across the country sent a joint letter to the U.S. Attorney General questioning the plan. A joint letter from 192 Yale professors sent to the U.S. attorney general arguing that the program is fundamentally flawed. More than 20 Asian-American groups sent a joint letter to the President of the United States calling for an end to the program. The Chinese American Federation organized protest demonstrations outside the U.S. Department of Justice to stop the "China Action Plan."

Zhao Lijian also said that facts have proved that the essence of the so-called "China Action Plan" is nothing more than a clumsy tool for the US anti-China forces to abuse the concept of national security and contain and suppress China. The US side should listen to the voices of justice from all walks of life, correct its erroneous practices as soon as possible, stop using China as an imaginary enemy, stop making up excuses, smear and suppress China, and stop interfering with and undermining normal Sino-US exchanges and cooperation in the field of science and technology and humanities.