Chen Gang case ZhaoXue! The United States must immediately stop the political persecution of Chinese scientists

Source: China Radio and Television Corporation International Online

Editor: Yang Yuguo

"This is the latest setback encountered by the so-called 'China Action Plan' of the US side." On the 20th local time, the US Department of Justice officially withdrew the charges against Chen Gang, a Chinese-American professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Reuters made the above comments. In his statement, Chen Gang, the party concerned, used "a terrible year" to describe the senseless disaster he experienced.

Last January, Professor Chen Gang was arrested at his home in Massachusetts. The U.S. side accused him of not disclosing a partnership with a Chinese university when applying for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. However, this accusation is clearly a malicious attempt to commit fraud. In an open letter, MIT President Rafael Leffe clarified that the university's cooperation and funding with Chinese partner universities is not Chen Gang's personal behavior, but the school's behavior. Hundreds of faculty members of the school signed an open letter expressing solidarity with Chen Gang. With the fermentation of this incident, the so-called "China Action Plan" implemented by the United States has been more and more criticized.

Out of an attempt to comprehensively contain and suppress China, the US side has continuously "stumbled" on normal people-to-people and scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States in recent years. The so-called "China Action Plan" launched in 2018 is a product of this background. Under the guise of preventing "stealing scientific research" and preventing "economic espionage," the plan requires the judiciary in 94 U.S. regions to file at least one or two lawsuits against China each year. According to MIT Technology Review last month, the China Action Plan has involved 77 cases and 148 people have been charged, nearly 90 percent of whom are of Chinese descent.

From presupposing false accusations to issuing litigation targets, the absurdity of such disregard for judicial justice occurred in the United States, which has always flaunted "democracy" and "rule of law", which is simply incredible. Some US public opinion pointed out that this is the US Government's blatant "presumption of guilt" against Chinese scientists in the absence of real evidence. Nearly 2,000 scholars at universities across the country have sent a joint letter to the U.S. attorney general questioning the plan.

Political manipulation cannot obscure the truth. Eight cases related to the China Action Plan have been reportedly dropped, including Chen Gang's case. Among them, Hu Anming, a professor at the University of Tennessee in the United States, is the first Chinese scholar to appear in court for the "China Action Plan". Last September, a U.S. judge declared that all charges against Hu Anming were unfounded. This is nothing more than a self-inflicted "slap in the face" of the US side in abusing judicial procedures and engaging in political bullying, which strongly proves that the so-called "China Action Plan" is nothing more than a clumsy tool for the US anti-China forces to contain and suppress China.

Obstructing normal personnel and scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States with political purposes not only creates greater resistance to Sino-US relations, but also causes substantial harm to the United States' ability to innovate in science and technology. The ATLANTIC magazine recently published an article saying that the "China Action Plan" is hurting intellectual property assets that are more valuable than "tools" and "drawings", that is, American scientists and the scientific community, and "this practice is creating an atmosphere of fear that stifles legitimate scientific cooperation."

More criticism pointed out that the "China Action Plan" highlights the distorted mentality of the US side toward China and aggravates the already serious racial discrimination problem in US society. A few days ago, the Chinese Federation of America organized a protest outside the US Department of Justice to stop the "China Action Plan."

From Hu Anming to Chen Gang, the encounters of many Chinese professors have made the world see that some US politicians regard anti-China as a political "bet" and create a political atmosphere hostile to China in American society, so that innocent people have become political victims. It's like the resurgence of the infamous "McCarthyism." The United States, which originally rose up because of self-confidence and openness, is now wrapped up in the deformed mentality of the cup and bow snake shadow, which is really a kind of depravity and sadness.

In the face of a wave of opposition, the current US administration should draw a clear line with the anti-China "legacy" of its predecessor as soon as possible, view Sino-US scientific and technological and humanistic exchanges with a healthy mindset, stop using China as an "imaginary enemy," and stop abusing judicial power to harass and suppress Chinese students and researchers in the United States. This is a wise move that serves the common interests of China and the United States. (International Sharp Review Commentator)