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Harvard professor found guilty of hiding ties to China
Last Updated: Dec. 21, 2021 at 7:49 p.m. ET
First Published: Dec. 21, 2021 at 7:48 p.m. ET
By Associated Press
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Prosecutors said Charles Lieber knowingly hid his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan
Harvard University professor Charles Lieber departs federal court in Boston on Jan. 30, 2020, following his arrest. Associated Press
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BOSTON — A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program was found guilty on all counts Tuesday.
Charles Lieber, 62, the former chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China.
The jury deliberated for about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing the verdict following five days of testimony in Boston federal court.
Lieber’s defense attorney Marc Mukasey had argued that prosecutors lacked proof of the charges. He maintained that investigators didn’t keep any record of their interviews with Lieber prior to his arrest.
He argued that prosecutors would be unable to prove that Lieber acted “knowingly, intentionally, or willfully, or that he made any material false statement.” Mukasey also stressed Lieber wasn’t charged with illegally transferring any technology or proprietary information to China.
Prosecutors argued that Lieber, who was arrested in January, knowingly hid his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan — a program designed to recruit people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China — to protect his career and reputation.
Lieber denied his involvement during inquiries from U.S. authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, which had provided him with millions of dollars in research funding, prosecutors said.
Lieber also concealed his income from the Chinese program, including $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology, up to $158,000 in living expenses and more than $1.5 million in grants, according to prosecutors.
In exchange, they say, Lieber agreed to publish articles, organize international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese university.
The case is among the highest profile to come from the U.S. Department of Justice’s so-called “China Initiative.”
The effort launched in 2018 to curb economic espionage from China has faced criticism that it harms academic research and amounts to racial profiling of Chinese researchers.
Hundreds of faculty members at Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Temple and other prominent colleges have signed onto letters to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on him to end the initiative.
The academics say the effort compromises the nation’s competitiveness in research and technology and has had a chilling effect on recruiting foreign scholars. The letters also complain the investigations have disproportionally targeted researchers of Chinese origin.
Lieber has been on paid administrative leave from Harvard since being arrested in January 2020.
"Lieber's research group at Harvard had received over $15 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, which requires disclosing foreign financial conflicts of interests. The jury found that Lieber had lied about his affiliation with the Wuhan University of Technology in China and a contract he had with a Chinese talent recruitment plan to attract high-level scientists to the country."
In some societies,people tend to live below their means,so they can build a cushion in case they get laid off,or castrophe hits,or some relative needs help.
But in this country,our paycheck is all spoken for-Fed,state,city tax,SS,medical premium,401 k,mortgage,car payments,insurance for house and car and ourselves,property tax,student loan,credit card,personal loan,utility bills.Nlfx,amzn,AAA,drycleaning ,and what else.
I have seen immigrant family lived in a one bedroom apt,or 2 bedrooms until they save enough to buy a house with hefty down payment or all cash.
There are some serious national security implications for having higher education so tied to China. I remember hearing a few years back about a university in Australia that made a public apology for a tweet one of their professors made supporting the Hong Kong protests. Should freedom and democracy not be a fundamental value of higher learning? This does no favours to dispel the right wing narrative of Communists taking over academia. Not just here in Canada but across the world I hope we see some serious clamping down on these types of collusion
There are some serious national security implications for having higher education so tied to China. I remember hearing a few years back about a university in Australia that made a public apology for a tweet one of their professors made supporting the Hong Kong protests. Should freedom and democracy not be a fundamental value of higher learning? This does no favours to dispel the right wing narrative of Communists taking over academia. Not just here in Canada but across the world I hope we see some serious clamping down on these types of collusion
Canada and Sweden are hardly "right wing". They have closed CCP-controlled Confucius Institutes in their country due to security concern. China is rising while America is destroying itself from within with finger pointing and China is taking full advantage of the division.
China is rising while America is destroying itself from within with finger pointing and China is taking full advantage of the division.
With Xi closing down industry after industry, it is actually China that has started to destroy itself from within.
How many Chinese companies with a market cap of above $100B can you name that has a promising future? In America I can find plenty, such as Apple ($2,900B), Alphabet ($1,900B), Amazon ($1,700B).
This question would have been really easy 2 years ago, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei. But now, 2 of them are being punished by the CCP and the last got crippled under US sanctions. Many of the biggest companies in China now are just banks, which have grown big from the Chinese housing bubble.
With Xi closing down industry after industry, it is actually China that has started to destroy itself from within.
How many Chinese companies with a market cap of above $100B can you name that has a promising future? In America I can find plenty, such as Apple ($2,900B), Alphabet ($1,900B), Amazon ($1,700B).
This question would have been really easy 2 years ago, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei. But now, 2 of them are being punished by the CCP and the last got crippled under US sanctions. Many of the biggest companies in China now are just banks, which have grown big from the Chinese housing bubble.
With Xi closing down industry after industry, it is actually China that has started to destroy itself from within.
How many Chinese companies with a market cap of above $100B can you name that has a promising future? In America I can find plenty, such as Apple ($2,900B), Alphabet ($1,900B), Amazon ($1,700B).
This question would have been really easy 2 years ago, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei. But now, 2 of them are being punished by the CCP and the last got crippled under US sanctions. Many of the biggest companies in China now are just banks, which have grown big from the Chinese housing bubble.
He’s putting the country in a dangerous corner. I recall learning that for some decades after the Korean War, the South was notably poorer than the North until the isolationist Juche policy became more entrenched, and the South became a liberal democracy. I wonder if his days as leader are numbered as more liberal factions in the CCP work to get him out
With Xi closing down industry after industry, it is actually China that has started to destroy itself from within.
How many Chinese companies with a market cap of above $100B can you name that has a promising future? In America I can find plenty, such as Apple ($2,900B), Alphabet ($1,900B), Amazon ($1,700B).
This question would have been really easy 2 years ago, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei. But now, 2 of them are being punished by the CCP and the last got crippled under US sanctions. Many of the biggest companies in China now are just banks, which have grown big from the Chinese housing bubble.
Amazon and Apple might as well be Chinese companies. Amazon is heavily promoting CCP agendas while Apple employs 350,000 Chinese to make their products. Big companies benefit a very small group of people such as shareholders and upper management, but not the average American people.
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