August 21, 2019
Table of Contents
Before China Initiative: Xiafen “Sherry” Chen 陈霞芬 and Xiaoxing Xi 郗小星
Before China Initiative: Wen Ho Lee 李文和
Overview
The Chinese character for injustice 冤 is an ideogrammic (a graphic symbol that represents an idea) compound of putting a cover 冖 on a rabbit 兔. According to Wiktionary, the same character is used in Japanese Kanji, Korean Hanja, and Vietnamese Han characters. The ancient form of the character reportedly first appeared in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).
Profiling and discrimination against Asian Americans is not new. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration based on national origin and race. During World War II, 125,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II because of their ancestry and unproven question of loyalty.
Before the China Initiative, Wen Ho Lee 李文和 was targeted and scapegoated for providing nuclear secrets to the government of China. Prior to the China Initiative, Xiafen “Sherry” Chen 陈霞芬, Xiaoxing Xi 郗小星, and other scientists in academia, federal government, and private industry were alleged to pass secrets to China, only to have all their charges dropped at the end.
Under the China Initiative, Professor Feng "Franklin" Tao 陶丰 became the first academic and scientist of Chinese origin to be indicted in August 2019. The shift from economic espionage to “research integrity” in the guise of national security would continue intensely for the next two years.
Dr. Qing Wang 王擎 was fired from his research position before he was indicted in May 2020. In the last full day of the Trump Administration in January 2021, Professor Gang Chen 陈刚 was indicted with the prosecutor questioning his loyalty to the United States. Professor Anming Hu 胡安明 became the first to go to trial in June 2021 and was fully exonerated by the end of the trial.
New York Police Department (NYPD) Officer Baimadajie Angwang (昂旺) was charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China in September 2020. NYPD failed not only to reinstate him, but proceeded to terminate his employment in one of the most egregious injustices of the modern era.
Most of these individuals are naturalized and accomplished US citizens born in China. Officer Angwang was deployed as a U.S. marine to Afghanistan and joined the Army Reserve. Although their charges were eventually dropped or acquitted, the injustice has already caused severe damage to their careers, reputation, finances, and families.
Timed to coincide with the US closing of China’s consulate in Houston as a “spy center” in July 2020, five Chinese researchers were arrested and charged separately for visa fraud, alleging them to be spies on behalf of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The Department of Justice summarily dropped all five cases a year later.
Feng “Franklin” Tao 陶丰
On August 21, 2019, Feng “Franklin” Tao 陶丰 became the first academic of Chinese origin to be indicted under the China Initiative.
An associate professor at Kansas University’s (KU) Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (CEBC), Franklin Tao was initially charged with one count of wire fraud and three counts of program fraud, which was superseded to 10 charges. He was employed since August 2014 by the CEBC, whose mission is to conduct research on sustainable technology to conserve natural resources and energy.
All charges against Professor Tao were dismissed or acquitted except one. He was convicted by a jury for one count of making a false statement to KU. As another rejection by U.S. courts of the government’s attempt to prosecute Chinese-born scientists for lapses in reporting their research interactions with China, the judge handed down the lightest possible sentence - 2 years of probation that could be cut in half for good behavior.
Professor Tao has appealed to overturn the one-count conviction. A decision on his appeal is pending.
[Link to Franklin’s webpage under Impacted Persons]
Anming Hu 胡安明
On February 27, 2020, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of Professor Anming Hu, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). Professor Hu was charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements.
Professor Hu was the first U.S. university professor of Asian ancestry facing dubious charges under the "China Initiative" to go to trial on June 7, 2021.
The trial revealed the zeal of the misguided “China Initiative” to criminalize Professor Hu with reckless and deplorable tactics of spreading false information to cast him as a spy for China and press him to become a spy for the U.S. government. When these efforts failed, DOJ brought charges against Professor Hu for intentionally hiding his ties to a Chinese university, which also fell apart upon cross examination during the trial.
On June 16, 2021, a mistrial in Professor Hu’s case was declared after the jury deadlocked.
On July 30, 2021, the U.S. Government announced that it intended to retry the case against Professor Hu.
On September 9, 2021, Judge Thomas Varlan issued an order and acquitted Professor Hu of all charges.
[Link to Anming Hu’s webpage under Impacted Persons]
Qing Wang 王擎
On May 14, 2020, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Dr. Qing Wang as a former Cleveland Clinic researcher and a Chinese “Thousand Talents” participant. He was charged with false claims and wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in grant funding that Dr. Wang and his research group allegedly received from NIH.
On July 15, 2021, DOJ moved to dismiss its case against Dr. Wang without prejudice.
His case was the first detected by APA Justice to have been removed from the DOJ online report after it was dismissed.
[Link to Qing Wang’s webpage under Impacted Persons]
The Five “Visa Fraud” Cases
On July 24, 2020, The U.S. ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, accusing it to be a "spy center" to conduct spying activities with local medical centers or universities.
Apparently timed to support the announcement, four researchers from China were charged with visa fraud “after lying about their work for China’s People’s Liberation Army.” It was followed by the indictment of a fifth researcher from China in August 2020.
The five Chinese nationals are four biomedical and cancer researchers in California and a doctoral candidate studying artificial intelligence in Indiana:
Lei Guan (关磊), Visiting researcher (mathematics), University of California at Los Angeles
Dr. Chen Song (宋琛), Visiting researcher (neurology), Stanford University
Dr. Juan Tang (唐娟), Visiting researcher (cancer), University of California at Davis
Xin Wang (王欣), Visiting researcher (neurology), University of California at San Francisco
Kaikai Zhao (赵凯凯), Doctoral candidate (machine learning and artificial intelligence), Indiana University
In December 2020, Assistant Attorney General John Demers made a dubious claim that more than 1,000 visiting researchers affiliated with the Chinese military fled the United States in the summer.
In July 2021, all five visa fraud cases were abruptly dismissed by DOJ.
[Link to all five individuals’ web pages under Impacted Persons]
Baimadajie Angwang (昂旺)
On September 21, 2020, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Baimadajie Angwang, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer and United States Army reservist, alleging him for acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China as well as committing wire fraud, making false statements and obstructing an official proceeding.
On January 19, 2023, all charges against Officer Angwang were formally dropped after U.S. prosecutors said they uncovered new information that warranted the dismissal.
Angwang, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Tibet, China, spent six months in custody before being granted bail.
Although all federal charges against Officer Angwang were dismissed, NYPD not only did not reinstate him, but proceeded to start administrative proceedings against him in September 2023. NYPD terminated his employment in January 2024.
[See Baimadajie Angwang’s web page (under development) under Impacted Persons]
Gang Chen 陈刚
On January 14, 2021, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of MIT Professor Gang Chen, alleging him for failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People’s Republic of China to the U.S. Department of Energy.
When then-U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling unveiled the charges at a news conference in Boston on the last full day of the Trump administration, he said, “it is not illegal to collaborate with foreign researchers. It’s illegal to lie about it. The allegations in the complaint imply that this was not just about greed, but about loyalty to China.”
On January 20, 2022, all charges against Professor Chen were dropped.
Professor Chen describes himself to be the luckiest among the unlucky because he had full support from MIT, its faculty members, and the Asian Pacific American and scientific communities. He is the namesake of the “We Are All Gang Chen” movement.
“When I endured was not an isolated incident, but the result of a long American history of scapegoating and harmful policy making. Having secured our seat at the table, we must remain engaged, committed, and vigilant to prevent civil rights abuses for the next generation,” he said.
[See Gang Chen’s web page under Impacted Persons]
Before China Initiative: Xiafen “Sherry” Chen 陈霞芬 and Xiaoxing Xi 郗小星
A pattern of racial profiling against Chinese American scientists began to emerge in 2015 under the Obama Administration prior to the official launch of the China Initiative.
In a relatively short time span, four naturalized American citizens in three separate situations were indicted for one of the most serious crimes related to espionage and trade secrets that carried heavy penalties in prison terms and fines. These individuals - Guiqing Cao, Shuyu Li, Sherry Chen, and Xiaoxing Xi - worked in diverse fields - private industry, federal government, and academia respectively.
All three cases were subsequently dismissed or dropped without apology or further explanation.
This is highly unusual because the Department of Justice (DOJ) prides itself on its mission of prosecuting criminal cases. Conviction rate is a key measure of success and performance. Annual statistical reports show that the overall DOJ conviction rate in all criminal prosecutions has been over 90% every year since 2001. The rate for espionage-related charges is expected to be much higher than average due to its serious nature and impact on the accused.
Sherry Chen won a historic settlement from the US Department of Commerce in November 2022. Professor Xiaoxing Xi’s civil lawsuit against the FBI is still ongoing at this time.
The APA Justice Task Force was formed in response to a call by Rep. Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, in 2015 as a platform to address racial profiling and related justice and fairness issues for the Asian Pacific American communities.
[Link to Sherry Chen, Xiaoxing Xi, and APA Justice web pages]
Before China Initiative: Wen Ho Lee 李文和
Dr. Wen Ho Lee is a Taiwanese-American nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer who worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico from 1978 to 1999.
Dr. Lee came to the US in 1964 at the age of 26 to attend Texas A&M University. He received his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1970 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1974. He worked for the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
He moved to New Mexico in 1978 and worked as a scientist in weapons design at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in applied mathematics and fluid dynamics, from that year until 1999.
Dr. Lee was publicly named by US Department of Energy officials, including Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, as a suspect in the theft of classified nuclear-related documents from Los Alamos in 1999.
On December 10, 1999, Dr. Lee was arrested, indicted on 59 counts of unlawfully mishandling classified documents, and jailed in solitary confinement without bail for 278 days.
On September 13, 2000, Dr. Lee accepted a plea bargain on one count from the federal government. He was released on time served.
Upon the sentencing, Judge James Parker offered a formal apology to Dr. Lee, “I have no authority to speak on behalf of the executive branch, the president, the vice president, the attorney general, or the secretary of the Department of Energy. As a member of the third branch of the United States Government, the judiciary, the United States courts, I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner you were held in custody by the executive branch.”
In 2003, Dr. Lee wrote a memoir with Helen Zia, “My Country Versus Me”, to tell his story how his Asian ethnicity was a primary factor behind his prosecution by the government.
In June 2006, Dr. Lee won a historic settlement over violation of his privacy rights and received $1.65 million from the government and five news organizations.
Judge James Parker passed away in September 2022. Secretary Bill Richardson died in September 2023.
2018/03/12 Jeremy Wu: Revisiting Judge Parker’s Apology to Dr. Wen Ho Lee
2006/06/03 Washington Post: Wen Ho Lee Settles Privacy Lawsuit
2003/01/08 Wen Ho Lee and Helen Zia: My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused of Being a Spy
2001/02/04 New York Times: The Making of a Suspect: The Case of Wen Ho Lee
2000/09/26 New York Times: From The Editors; The Times and Wen Ho Lee
2000/09/14 New York Times: Statement by Judge in Los Alamos Case, With Apology for Abuse of Power
2000/09/13 ABC News: Wen Ho Lee Freed After Guilty Plea
2000/12/04 C-SPAN: The Wen Ho Lee Story (video 1:11:24)
1999/08/01 60 Minutes: "Spy?" - Wen Ho Lee (video 16:55)
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Before China Initiative: Xiafen “Sherry” Chen 陈霞芬 and Xiaoxing Xi 郗小星
Kansas University Professor Feng “Franklin” Tao became the first academic and scientist of Chinese origin to be indicted in August 2019. He was followed by Professors Anming Hu and Gang Chen, Researcher Dr. Qing Wang, New York Police Department Officer Baimadajie Angwang, a group of five STEM researchers and students from China, and others. The year 2020 saw the injustice inflicted by the government shifting and intensifying its profiling of scientists, most of them of Chinese origin, for “research integrity” in the name of national security.
4. Shift to Profiling Scientists of Chinese Origin
