U.S. Court Convicts Ailing Top Harvard Chemist For Making False Statements

The beleaguered China Initiative, a US Justice Department program started in 2018 to counter Chinese scientific espionage, has resulted in a significant conviction—but not of a spy.

Photo Insert: Cases like Lieber’s have generally involved researchers double-dipping—taking Chinese government research grants and not declaring them to US authorities, which is legally required when they apply for federal government grants.

Prominent Harvard chemist Charles Lieber, 62, was convicted of making false statements on government documents—making him emblematic of an initiative that has increasingly focused on so-called research integrity cases rather than espionage, James Palmer reported for Foreign Policy.

Cases like Lieber’s have generally involved researchers double-dipping—taking Chinese government research grants and not declaring them to US authorities, which is legally required when they apply for federal government grants.

Although this is a problem, it’s not spying. Lieber, who has late-stage cancer, seems unlikely to receive serious jail time, but the charges carry a potential five-year sentence and up to a $250,000 fine.

Other China Initiative cases have fallen apart, most prominently that of nanotechnology expert Anming Hu, in which the government attempted a fraud prosecution based on shoddy evidence after its initial espionage charges proved false.

The case has caused critics of the program, like legal expert Margaret Lewis, to call for an end to the initiative altogether.

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