Harvard Prof Accused of Selling Out to China
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CounterCurrent: Week of 2/9
Harvard Prof Accused of Selling Out to China
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Academic Corruption; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Article - The Thousand Traitors Program by John David ([link removed][UNIQID])
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A couple of weeks ago, I covered a discouraging report by the NCSES detailing America’s stalling science and engineering (S&E) development compared to other world powers. The most notable of these is China, a nation that invests more and more every year into S&E expansion. China’s means of stimulating growth vary widely and include spending a high percentage of GDP on research and development, incentivizing university students to earn STEM degrees, and strongly emphasizing applied, invention-oriented research over theoretical work. However, China also relies on nefarious, illegal tactics to pursue their scientific goals. Harvard’s Charles Lieber is only the latest instance of China’s hidden strategy.
Professor Lieber, Chair of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was recently charged ([link removed][UNIQID]) with “making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement” to the Department of Defense. He allegedly lied repeatedly to federal investigators about his participation in China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” and in particular about his collaboration with Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) as a “Strategic Scientist.”
The “Thousand Talents Program” (TTP) is one of over 200 “talent-recruitment programs” controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TTP’s purpose is to recruit exceptional scientists and engineers from around the globe to perform research “in collaboration with” Chinese institutions; it boasts an estimated 7,000 members since its launch in 2008. While international research collaboration is often mutually beneficial for the nations involved, TTP operates in secrecy, and without transparency, heightening the potential for research espionage.
Neither Harvard nor the U.S. government were aware of Professor Lieber’s membership in the program. Meanwhile, he allegedly earned upwards of $500,000 per year from the CCP and used his domestic research to support his WUT “shadow lab.” This is flagrant intellectual property theft and a serious endangerment of American national security. If these allegations are true, Lieber should be fired and banned for life from American academia.
In this week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , I further detail the charges against Charles Lieber, the nature of the Thousand Talents Program, and its place within China’s broader strategy of geopolitical subversion. Programs like TTP are not merely guilty of wholesale research espionage; they fundamentally undermine core values of transparency and integrity while actively working against American interests. The United States must protect its intellectual property and national security in order to bolster scientific development, safeguard our nation from external threats, and protect the American scientific ethos.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on foreign influence in American higher education:
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April 26, 2017
** Outsourced to China ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Rachelle Peterson
Since 2004, the Chinese government has planted Confucius Institutes that offer Chinese language and culture courses at colleges and universities around the world. This study examines China’s soft power influence in American higher education and reveals new data on China’s funding, hiring, and academic freedom policies.
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December 18, 2019
** How Many Confucius Institutes Are in the United States? ([link removed][UNIQID])
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NAS
Download an updated PDF that lists all of the Confucius Institutes in the United States, along with information on who to contact if you have concerns.
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July 15, 2019
** U.S. Universities' Dangerous Lack of Foreign Gift Transparency ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Rachelle Peterson
Colleges often don't disclose gifts from foreign governments, even when legally required. What are they hiding?
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November 04, 2019
** NAS Comments on Proposed Foreign Disclosure Regulations ([link removed][UNIQID])
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NAS
NAS's comment and recommendations on the Department of Education's proposed updates to foreign disclosure policy.
** About the NAS
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The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.
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