Harvard professor charged under DOJ ‘China Initiative’
The Department of Justice has charged the chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department for making ‘a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement’ regarding his involvement with a Chinese university.
A DoJ press release says that, according to the criminal complaint, Dr Charles Lieber, a specialist in nanoscience, has, since 2008, received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (‘NIH’) and Department of Defense (‘DOD’), and that ‘These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities.’
It said that unbeknownst to Harvard University, from 2011, ‘Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017’ – intended, says the DoJ, to ‘lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China and reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.’
Lieber’s contract was worth $50,000 per month plus one million Chinese Yuan in living expenses, and an award of $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT.
The DoJ alleges that in 2018 and 2019, ‘Lieber lied about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and affiliation with WUT’ and said he had never been asked to participate.
‘In November 2018,’ says the DoJ, ‘NIH inquired of Harvard whether Lieber had failed to disclose his then-suspected relationship with WUT and China’s Thousand Talents Plan. Lieber caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber “had no formal association with WUT” after 2012, that “WUT continued to falsely exaggerate” his involvement with WUT in subsequent years, and that Lieber “is not and has never been a participant in” China’s Thousand Talents Plan.’
The Justice Department says that the charges have been brought under its ‘China Initiative’, which ‘reflects the strategic priority of countering Chinese national security threats and reinforces the President’s overall national security strategy. In addition to identifying and prosecuting those engaged in trade secret theft, hacking and economic espionage, the initiative will increase efforts to protect our critical infrastructure against external threats including foreign direct investment, supply chain threats and the foreign agents seeking to influence the American public and policymakers without proper registration.’
