Chen Gang, a Chinese professor at MIT, welcomed the U.S. Department of Justice to withdraw the lawsuit and asked Congress to thoroughly investigate the China Action Plan

"While admitting mistakes can be painful, history shows that this is the best way forward."

Coverage | Snow, Idobon

On January 20, 2022 local time, the new U.S. Department of Justice, Massachusetts federal prosecutor Rachael Rollins, announced the withdrawal of criminal charges against Chen Gang, a Chinese professor at MIT. Rawlings issued a statement on the same day that after carefully evaluating the latest evidence information obtained, the prosecution had determined that it could not fulfill the burden of proof in the subsequent trial. A local Court judge in Massachusetts subsequently granted the rescind of all charges against Mr. Chen. Rawlings said the move was "for justice."

On January 21, Chen Gang issued a statement in The Boston Globe, describing his experience of being investigated and arrested, imploring the U.S. Congress to thoroughly investigate the "China Action Plan," hold those responsible, and demand an apology from the government. (See the end of the statement for the full text)

Chen Gang, a Chinese professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chen Gang, a nano-heat transfer expert and head of MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, was previously arrested by the U.S. government on January 14, 2021, on charges of undisclosed cooperation in China. The U.S. Department of Justice accused it of concealing his position at a Chinese university and receiving about $29 million in funding when he applied for a U.S. Department of Energy grant in 2017, including $19 million from Southern University of Science and Technology; it also accused it of wire fraud, failure to file overseas bank account reports, and misrepresentations on tax returns. The truth, however, is that it was only after the case began to be investigated that the U.S. Department of Energy requested information involving overseas partnerships.

The Chen Gang case is one of the high-profile cases after the U.S. Department of Justice officially launched the China Initiative in November 2018. The China Action Plan was designed to investigate the theft of trade secrets and economic espionage that threatened U.S. national security, but soon Chinese-American researchers working at U.S. universities and research institutes were targeted. According to statistics, in the past three years, the US Department of Justice has prosecuted dozens of scholars and researchers, most of whom are Chinese.

MIT President L. Reeve Rafael Relf) said in an open letter after Chen Gang's arrest that Chen Gang's cooperation project with Chinese universities was carried out with the support of the school to promote the work of the delegation and the research and education work of the college, which is crucial to advancing science. In addition, MIT faculty and staff also jointly wrote to President Reeve, saying that Chen Gang's case was an insult to citizens who value science and the cause of science, and explained in detail the many seriously erroneous and misleading statements in the indictment. MIT also provided Chen Gang's legal fees.

Chen Gang has been on academic leave for a year. MIT's supportive attitude was cited as one of the factors in the case's withdrawal. Before the U.S. Department of Justice formally dropped the charges, a number of media outlets had reported that federal prosecutors had recommended the withdrawal of the charges, the fundamental reason being that all the "tongzhong" allegations were untenable.

In a statement to China Science Daily, Chen Gang's defense lawyer, Rob Fisher, said: "The government has finally acknowledged what we have been saying: Professor Chen Gang is innocent. "Our defense has never been based on any legal technical details." Chen Gang did not commit any of the alleged crimes. He disclosed everything that should have been disclosed and never lied to the government or anyone else. ”

This also shows that the "China Action Plan" has once again encountered setbacks, and the Washington Post said that the withdrawal of Chen Gang's lawsuit marks the "most eye-catching setback" of the US government's so-called "China Action Plan". In September 2021, the U.S. District Court for the U.S. District of Tennessee acquitted Hu Anming, a former associate professor at the University of Nassi at Knoxville, dismissing alleged fraud charges from the Justice Department. (See "Chinese Professor Hu Anming in the U.S.-Related 'Espionage Case' Acquitted, When Will the "China Action Plan" Be Suspended?) Wyn Hornbuckle, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, reportedly said the China Action Plan was under review to decide where to go. The review is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Chen Gang's statement:

At around 6:30 a.m. on January 14, 2021, numerous federal agents stormed my home, woke my wife and daughter from their slumber, handcuffed me, and imprisoned me, accusing me of being a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and not disclosing funds from multiple Chinese entities. I knew I was under investigation by the Justice Department's China Initiative, which was launched during the Trump administration: In January 2020, I returned from a trip abroad, was interrogated at Logan Airport, and all electronics were confiscated. However, just a month before my arrest, the Massachusetts Attorney's Office under U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling informed my lawyer that there was no prosecution against me at this time.

After my arrest, prosecutors told my lawyer that the change in the situation was due to the haste of prosecution. The indictment and indictment are rife with basic factual errors — for example, it lists notes I take in speeches by others, making them my own — and my arrest when I was less than a week in office in the Trump administration means that Lynn is leaving office. On the day of my arrest, Lyrin and Joseph Bonavolonta, an FBI agent in charge of the Boston office, held a press conference questioning my loyalty to the United States. For the next 371 days, my family and I went through hellish torture on earth.

On Thursday, the U.S. government admitted to the U.S. District Court in Boston that it could not substantiate the charges against me and dismissed my case "for justice."

In my opinion, there is no winner in politically and racially motivated prosecutions: my reputation has been damaged, my family has suffered, my institute has lost the services of a professor and borne the financial burden of defending me legally, American taxpayers' money has been wasted, America's ability to attract global talent has plummeted, and the scientific community has been terrified. By preventing researchers from working with China, Lyrin and Bonavolonta succeeded in creating the "chilling effect" they wanted — but in the process, they managed to undermine one of our strong strengths as a nation, our rich history of academic research and collaboration, which is why we, rather than other countries, make scientific discoveries. In doing so, they chose to survive at a time when humanity is facing threats like COVID-19 and global warming, and international scientific cooperation is urgently needed. Now, for whatever reason, even Mr. Lylin admits that the China action plan he helped create has "lost focus."

Let me be clear: While some of my experiences are certainly related to the grossly misguided China Action Plan, they also involve serious errors by the FBI, federal prosecutors, and other federal investigative agencies. As my team of lawyers has said, Bonavolonta and his agents ignored basic innocence evidence, interviewed key witnesses until after my arrest, and added fuel to various official documents and tried to distort the facts. Under the Constitution, prosecutors were required to hand over my innocence — for example, witnesses said I had never participated in a Chinese government-funded talent program, which is one of the main charges of the U.S. government — but the prosecution detained me for months until my lawyer pressed for it. While I am relieved to have my case withdrawn "for justice," I implore Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a thorough review of the matter to hold those responsible for this apparent misconduct.

More than thirty years ago, I came to the United States from China. I chose to support my family here and contribute my life's work. The country promises that race doesn't matter. But the China Action Plan is hard for me to come to.

While not all of the alleged professors are of Chinese descent, the vast majority are of Chinese descent, and — as these "appropriation fraud" cases progress clearer — the Justice Department's misleading theory of prosecution may apply to thousands of professors simply because they can't list every regular professional activity with every entity abroad (which wasn't required at the time). As a nation, we can acknowledge our mistakes and learn from them, rather than blindly continuing to make mistakes, and thus be more faithful to our ideals – and become a better world leader. While admitting mistakes can be painful, history shows that this is the best way forward.

Resources

[1] http://www.news.cn/2022-01/21/c_1128287432.htm

[2] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/067I2yshlUGeH6bneA7zsg

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/mit-gang-chen-dismiss/2022/01/20/912f68aa-786b-11ec-bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html

[4] https://apnews.com/article/science-technology-massachusetts-boston-massachusetts-institute-of-technology-c12c84da32fecc07c3e26ad0276a585e

[5] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/21/opinion/i-was-arrested-under-dojs-china-initiative-congress-must-investigate-program/