Edited by Time David
Recently, the US Department of Justice announced the end of the "China Action Plan". As one of the most famous victims of the program, MIT Professor Gang Chen published a signed article titled "We Are All Chen Gang" at Science.
Yesterday, Chinese scientist and MIT professor Chen Gang published a signed article in Science entitled "We Are All Chen Gang".
Despite his claim that "I am the luckiest of misfortunes", he has been fighting injustice for 2 years.
In the article, he combed through the process of the charges, expounded his personal views on the "China Action Plan" for the United States, talked about the solidarity and support of MIT and colleagues for him, and the recommendations for research institutions and funding agencies.
The full text is translated as follows:
Rampant unlawful prosecution terrorizes innocent people around the world, and the scientific community is not immune. I know this because I am a victim.
I am a professor at MIT who has been accused by the U.S. government of fraud and has suspicious links with Chinese entities. Earlier this year, I was finally acquitted, and it took 2 years.
However, I painfully realized that I was the luckiest one of the unluckiest. Many other Chinese-American scientists are being unfairly investigated for similar so-called "crimes" or are simply leaving the country to avoid being targeted.
My hard experience has taught me that politics affects science and scientists, and that universities and research institutions must stand up for teachers who have been wrongly prosecuted.
I grew up in China and found my American Dream at MIT, where I became a department head and led a dynamic research team. In January 2020, this dream turned into a nightmare. I was detained and interrogated at Boston Logan Airport, and my electronic devices were confiscated.
A year later, federal agents raided my home, arrested me, and interrogated my wife without a lawyer present. My family lived in fear for 2 years and my research team members looked elsewhere.
The allegations against me are absurd, and they criminalize these day-to-day professional activities— reviewing research proposals, writing letters of recommendation, hosting visiting scientists. In January 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped all charges.
I was investigated under the U.S. Department of Justice's China Action Plan, an action launched by the Trump administration in 2018. Andrew Lelling, then the Massachusetts prosecutor, was the mastermind of the China Action Plan. Although he recently stated that "the plan has gone off course and lost focus in some important areas", similar prosecutions continue.
Just a few weeks ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau launched two new China action investigations every day.
Massachusetts Prosecutor Andrew Lelling
What gave me hope and ultimately saved me was a lesson that applied to all universities. I was detained at the airport after the principal L. Under Rafael Reif's leadership, the MIT school gave me moral and financial support, and shortly after my arrest, the school publicly supported me.
MIT Professor Yoel Fink organized faculty and staff to write an open letter with the signatures of more than 200 faculty members. The letter used facts to refute the prosecution, ending with a statement of solidarity – "We are all Chen Gang" – "We are all Chen Gang." Professor G. A. Thompson of Northwestern University Jeffrey Snyderg launched a similar online petition with 1380 signatures.
In the public online petition, faculty and staff at about 230 U.S. universities called on the Justice Department to halt the China Action Plan. In just one day, my daughter's fundraiser accomplished its goal and helped raise awareness among other Chinese-American scientists in similar situations.
New civil rights groups joined forces with existing ones to fight for justice and eliminate the China Action Plan, all of which brought together voices to prompt the government to drop all charges.
MIT has also supported other faculty members under similar investigations, but other universities have largely remained silent. I urge university leaders, trustees, and alumni associations to protect their faculty and staff from this misdeed. Brain drain, along with the fears created by faculty and staff, is weakening their institutions, supporting harmful biases, and destroying their lives.
MIT published documents in support of scientific research activities
Funding agencies must uphold justice. Dr. Chris Fall, former director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, recently explained that in 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy changed its reporting rules regarding foreign relations. The government applied the 2020 rules to my 2017 DOE grant application, and the 2021 indictment mentioned the DOE 18 times, ignoring this basic fact. The U.S. Department of Energy is supposed to speak out when it works, and that's a lesson for all federal agencies.
I have dedicated my life to science and education and never thought to get involved in this plan of action, but I am now involved.
There should be further voices to make governments and the public aware of the evils of wrongful prosecution. I call on Congress to investigate the government's misconduct in my case and similar cases, and I call for continued vigilance to stop the China Action Plan, no matter how it is redefined by the Justice Department.
As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in Birmingham Prison, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
After two years of injustice, the lawsuit was just withdrawn last month
Just over a month ago, on January 20, 2022, a local court in Massachusetts dropped charges against Chen Gang, a well-known Chinese scientist and MIT professor.
In a previous 2021 indictment, the U.S. Department of Energy said Chen Gang did not report his "position in China" when he applied for research grants in 2017.
Part of the reason for the withdrawal of the indictment came from the energy department that filed the charges.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently told federal prosecutors that Professor Chen was not obligated to disclose the information at the time and said that even if they knew about it at the time, they would not refuse to disburse the grant.
The Department of Energy began asking researchers to provide information about their contacts with foreign countries, and that was after that.
In January, prosecutors dropped charges against MIT professor Gang Chen
The latest information on the case was reportedly obtained in recent talks between federal prosecutors and senior officials from the Department of Energy.
A source familiar with the case said multiple allegations in the indictment were either not reviewed or deemed irrelevant.
In response, Chen Gang's defense lawyer Rob Fisher said in a statement to the media:
"The government has finally acknowledged what we have been saying: Professor Chen Gang is innocent. Our defense is never based on any legal technical details. Chen Gang did not commit any of the crimes he was charged with. He disclosed everything that should have been disclosed and never lied to the government or anyone else."
2021 in the midst of suffering
On January 14, 2021, MIT professor Gang Chen was arrested at his home for failing to disclose to the U.S. Department of Energy "contracts, appointments, and awards from different organizations in China."
At the time, Gang Chen was the director of the MIT Papalado Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratory and the director of the Solid State Solar Thermal Conversion Center.
The sudden news shocked the entire academic community, and then the president of MIT issued an open letter saying that "Chen Gang is a widely respected scholar."
MIT also issued an announcement for the first time, saying that "Professor Chen is a highly respected scholar, so such accusations are even more sad."
Justice Department documents allege that Mr. Chen has received about $29 million in foreign funding since 2013. He also received more than $19 million in grants from U.S. federal agencies.
In addition, the United States also emphasized his efforts to "promote China's scientific and economic development".
In this regard, MIT President L. In an open letter dated January 22, 2021, Rafael Reif noted: "In 2018, the school established a partnership with Southern University of Science and Technology. Although Professor Chen is the head of the department at MIT, this is an interdepartmental collaboration supported by the school, not an individual."
"The agreement provides for a payment of $25 million to MIT over five years. Of that, $19 million was used for collaborative research and educational activities, and $6 million was designated as a graduate scholarship to support MIT's building renovation program and donations."
"In other words, these funds are meant to advance our work, as well as MIT's research and educational missions."
Unpopular, the United States ends the "China Action Plan"
The Chen Gang case is one of the most high-profile cases in the U.S. Department of Justice's so-called China Action Plan.
Since 2018, about 20 Chinese scholars have been prosecuted under the scheme. In at least eight cases related to the program in the past year, the U.S. side dropped charges or acquitted defendants.
From the time the plan was introduced and implemented, the opposition and questioning of the program by the American intellectual and educational circles have not stopped.
According to The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the implementation of the China Action Plan, nearly 2,000 scholars from universities across the United States have jointly written to the US 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 calling for the program to be halted.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently formally suspended the China Action Plan after a series of failed lawsuits against academics under the program and widespread distrust in the higher education community.
Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security affairs, said at a news conference on Wednesday that the Justice Department will now only pursue criminal acts that prosecutors believe are "clearly linked" to U.S. national or economic security interests.
He said there was no evidence that certain biases influenced the Justice Department's decision. But "fundamentally, I don't think this plan is the best way to deal with it given the threat situation we're facing."
Some Asian-American rights groups have cautiously welcomed the change.
Linda Ng, national president of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, an Asia Pacific-American advocacy group, said in a statement:
"This program has undermined America's competitiveness, ruined the careers of innocent scholars, and seriously damaged the administration's relationship with the Asian-American community." We are cautiously optimistic that the Justice Department is revisiting the plan, but we can't just repackage it."
Resources:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo6697
https://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2022/1/473051.shtm
https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-shifts-approach-to-chinese-national-security-threats-11645646452?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1%E2%80%8B