A Thousand and One Fraudsters
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CounterCurrent: Week of 5/24
A Thousand and One Fraudsters
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 Integrity; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Article - Questioning Ties to China by Rachelle Peterson ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Before I begin with this week’s feature, allow me to wish you a happy belated Memorial Day on behalf of the National Association of Scholars. NAS is immensely grateful for all of the brave men and women who have served our country and continue to protect our nation and its allies from foreign threats. If that describes you, thank you for your service.
Now, on to far less patriotic matters.
As you may recall, in late January Dr. Charles Lieber of Harvard University was charged ([link removed][UNIQID]) with “making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement” to the Department of Defense regarding his alleged involvement in the Thousand Talents Program (TTP — ([link removed][UNIQID]) Not to be confused with the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP). This program is a “talent recruitment agency” run by the Chinese Communist Party, designed to smuggle research secrets to China under the ruse of “scientific collaboration.” Most TTP contracts are signed unbeknownst to these researchers’ domestic employers or the United States government, posing an obvious and urgent national security threat.
Unfortunately, Dr. Lieber is far from alone—since his arrest, several others have been accused of similar involvement with China. Professors Simon Saw-Teong Ang ([link removed][UNIQID]) of the University of Arkansas, Qing Wang ([link removed][UNIQID]) of Case Western Reserve University, and Xiojiang Li ([link removed][UNIQID]) of Emory University all face criminal charges related to their participation in the Thousand Talents Program. The Department of Education recently began an investigation ([link removed][UNIQID]) of the University of Texas for a possible connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Three unidentified faculty members of the University of Florida were found
([link removed][UNIQID]) to have secret ties to China, which included receiving TTP grants and, in one case, directing a research institute at a Chinese university.
The Thousand Talents Program alone has an estimated 7,000 members and is itself one of over 200 CCP-run programs ([link removed][UNIQID]) . Given what has been uncovered in recent months, there is every reason to believe that many, many more instances of such infiltrations exist within American academia.
These academic fraudsters know what they’re doing is wrong. Why else would they keep their connection to the CCP secret from their employers and the U.S. government? Why would they resort to tax evasion and wire fraud to hide their funding? Because they want to have their cake and eat it too: research for two countries, receive two paychecks, and achieve twice the academic prestige, all for the small price of wholesale dishonesty and a betrayal of the American public.
As the aforementioned Professor Ang himself said ([link removed][UNIQID]) in an uncovered email, “‘You can search the Chinese website regarding what the US will do to Thousand Talent Scholars...Not many people here know I am one of them but if this leaks out, my job here will be in deep troubles [sic].’”
These cases expose a widespread disregard of academic integrity and a critical threat to American interests within the academy. In this week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , NAS Policy Director Rachelle Peterson relates the latest scandals to the larger problem of Chinese soft power in American higher education. She also places them in context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Writing for RealClearEducation, Peterson asserts:
American colleges and universities for years have opened their arms wide for Chinese government funding—but that funding has come at a price. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts higher education, colleges and universities feel even greater pressure to seek additional funding from their foreign benefactors. The American government must cut the bonds between China and our colleges.
This level of clandestine entanglement would be dangerous with any country, much more so with our greatest geopolitical rival. It must be brought to an end, for the sake of higher education and our country as a whole.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on Chinese soft power in American academia:
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March 26, 2020
** Universities for Sale ([link removed][UNIQID])
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David Randall
The higher education establishment will use the coronavirus emergency to double down on their dependence on China. This is precisely the wrong response.
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March 19, 2020
** Scrutiny of China's Donations to American Universities is Long Overdue ([link removed][UNIQID])
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David Randall
We are no republic if we let the plutocrats and the bureaucrats manage our colleges for us, as they have done, to America’s detriment, for far too long.
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March 12, 2020
** Senator Chuck Grassley Issues Stern Warning About Confucius Institutes ([link removed][UNIQID])
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NAS
In a letter to 77 colleges and universities, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley urges higher ed presidents to reconsider their support of Confucius Institutes.
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February 11, 2020
** The Thousand Traitors Program ([link removed][UNIQID])
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John David
What's wrong with American colleges? Admissions departments are a small microcosm of large scale corruption.
** About the NAS
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