![]() The “othering” of Asians was clearly articulated in FBI counter-intelligence training materials obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011, which included a slide that warned agents to “Never attempt to shake hands with an Asian” and “Never stare at an Asian.” The FBI has even viewed its own Chinese-American agents with unjustified suspicion. The failed prosecutions of Chinese-American scientists Wen Ho Lee in 1999, Sherry Chen in 2014, and Xiaoxing Xi in 2015 demonstrated that the FBI and Justice Department tendency to stretch facts and jump to conclusions in Chinese espionage cases pre-dated the China Initiative. national security initiatives is, unfortunately, nothing new. What linked them instead is what Justice Department officials called a “nexus to China,” which often consisted of no more than ancestry or association with Chinese students and universities.Īnti-Asian bias in U.S. Most, despite the original goals of the initiative, were not charged with economic espionage and were not alleged to be agents of the Chinese government. An analysis of China Initiative cases by MIT Technology Review indicated that 88 percent of the 148 defendants charged during the three years it operated were of Chinese ancestry. Notably, while Olsen acknowledged the China Initiative created a “harmful perception” of bias against people with “racial, ethnic, or familial ties to China,” he said his review found the investigations and prosecutions were driven by “genuine national security concerns.” The evidence that bias did play a role is overwhelming, however, and documented in the public record. He referenced the academic integrity cases and indicated that the Justice Department in the future may defer criminal prosecution in favor of administrative or civil remedies. Olsen made clear that the Justice Department and FBI will continue investigating economic espionage by China and other nation-states, but without a program specifically focused on one nation, and with more oversight by the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Olsen and the Justice Department deserve credit for listening to the criticism coming from Congress, academia, civil rights groups, and the Asian American community, and for publicly acknowledging the national security harms created by the China Initiative. In late February, Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen finally announced a formal end to the China Initiative after a months-long strategic review. Attorney Carol Lam argued, the China Initiative created “perverse incentives” where agents and prosecutors, “pressured to meet higher prosecution expectations,” may have been “stretching the facts and jumping to unwarranted conclusions.” An inordinate number of these so-called “research integrity” prosecutions were dismissed before trial or ended in acquittal. It increasingly targeted fundamental research scientists of Chinese ancestry like Tao for relatively minor errors and omissions in grant applications, rather than spies stealing national security secrets or proprietary technology at the direction of the Chinese government. In July of 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that “almost half” of the Bureau’s counter-intelligence investigations “are related to China.” By the end of 2021, one of the original China Initiative prosecutors argued the program “ drifted” from its original goal. The program, initiated in 2018, quickly gained infamy for dubious investigations and abusive prosecutions. The China Initiative was a Trump-era national security program designed to focus resources on prosecuting economic espionage and trade secret theft by Chinese government agents. While the program has officially ended, many important issues remain unresolved, not least being how the Justice Department justifies going forward with pending China Initiative cases like the grant-fraud prosecution of University of Kansas chemistry professor Franklin Tao, who is on trial beginning this week. Justice Department’s “China Initiative,” which we criticized in an earlier Just Security article as a blunt instrument that has undermined American scientific and technological advancement. This article first appeared in Just Security. Attend the Brennan Legacy Awards Dinner. ![]() Advance Constitutional Change Show / hide.National Task Force on Democracy Reform & the Rule of Law.Government Targeting of Minority Communities Show / hide. ![]()
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