Calls grow for US to dismiss ‘Nasa lies’ case of professor Hu Anming, as critics cite ‘outrageous racial bias’ in case accusing him of hiding ties to

[Nan Yang]

Calls grow for US to dismiss ‘Nasa lies’ case of professor Hu Anming, as critics cite ‘outrageous racial bias’ in case accusing him of hiding ties to Chinese university

• Group ‘outraged’ at plan to retry Hu for wire fraud and lying to Nasa about Beijing University of Technology link, after previous trial fell apart
• ‘What happened to Professor Hu and his family is part of systemic racial bias,’ says letter backing scientist, who was earlier accused of being a Beijing spy

Jodi Xu Klein
Published: 1:10am, 21 Aug, 2021

Former University of Tennessee associate professor Hu Anming has been accused of wire fraud and lying to Nasa about his ties to Beijing University of Technology. Photo: Blount County Sheriff’s Office

Civil rights organisations and academics sent letters in recent weeks to a US federal court, urging the judge to acquit former University of Tennessee professor Hu Anming – who is accused of lying to Nasa about his China ties and committing wire fraud — without retrying the case.

On Friday, advocacy group APA Justice Task Force sent a letter to Judge Thomas Varlan of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, who presides over the case, to express “outrage to the Department of Justice’s intent to retry” the case, and calling for it to be dismissed.

The Department of Justice first investigated Hu, a tenured professor at the university’s department of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering, on suspicion that he spied for China.

When the US government brought charges against Hu in February 2020, it dropped the espionage case, and instead charged him with wire fraud and making false statements for hiding his relationship with the Beijing University of Technology in grant applications he had made to Nasa.

The US government charged Hu Anming with wire fraud and making false statements when applying for grants from Nasa. His case ended in a mistrial. Photo: Reuters

Hu’s case ended in a mistrial after the jury said it could not agree on whether to convict him. The US government said they would pursue a retrial at the end of last month.

“Both the indictment and the trial showed that Professor Hu’s case has nothing to do with theft of American trade secrets,” APA’s letter said. “To the Asian-American community, what happened to Professor Hu and his family is part of systemic racial bias, discrimination, and profiling by our federal government against scientists and researchers of Asian descent across the country.”

APA joined at least two other organisations in sending letters to the judge advocating for the case to be thrown out.

The Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS), a non-government organisation protecting human rights and the scientific freedom of scientists and scholars, and Carl Patton, professor emeritus at Colorado State University, both sent letters to Varlan earlier this month, calling for the dismissal of the case.

“The case of Dr Hu and many similar cases tried in the US in recent years stem to a large degree from the failure of the government to clearly spell out rules related to foreign collaborations on unclassified research and the differences of these rules for different countries,” the co-chairs of the CCS said. “Chinese-American researchers have been disproportionately affected by this failure.”

Patton said the trial is “a great embarrassment” to the US government.

The US Department of Justice building in Washington on July 22. Photo: AFP

The fact that the DOJ has decided to retry the case “shows their continuing intent in their unrelenting campaign to punish innocent scientists and professors essentially ‘to teach these Chinese spies a lesson’, as one of the prosecutors screamed out during the trial”, he said.

Shortly after the letters, Francis Hamilton III, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, denied the defendant’s lawyer’s motion to dismiss the case.

Hu, 52, a naturalised Canadian citizen, was the first defendant in a non-espionage case to go to trial under the China Initiative, a Justice Department programme set up in 2018 to investigate trade secret theft and economic espionage activities considered threats to national security. The charges Hu faced were filed only after the FBI failed to develop evidence of espionage.

The mistrial gave fresh momentum to the effort to investigate whether the department has used the programme against Asians in espionage cases. Just before the US government announced its decision to retry Hu’s case, a group of about 90 lawmakers urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the China Initiative.

In the letter, the lawmakers said they were “deeply troubled” about whether the programme has been used to target people based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin.

Last week, Eric Lander, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), said the US had to “assiduously avoid basing policies or processes on prejudice – including those that could fuel anti-Asian sentiments or xenophobia”.

“Prejudice is fundamentally unacceptable, and will backfire because it will make it harder to attract the best scientific minds from around the world,” said Lander.

“We must affirm the integral role of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and people of all national origins in this country; welcome international students and scholars; and avoid casting aspersions on people because of their identity or origins.”

“Multiple people who happened to be of Asian descent have been falsely accused by the Department of Justice of espionage,” the letter said, citing cases of Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee, hydrologist Sherry Chen, and Temple University physicist Xiaoxing Xi.

Other recently dropped cases included the ones against University of Virginia robotics researcher Hu Haizhou, and former Cleveland Clinic researcher Qing Wang.

 

[Nan Yang]

Biden urged to pause and review China Initiative for racial profiling

• Advocacy groups add their voices to nearly 100 lawmakers who say the programme unfairly targets Asian-Americans based on race and ethnicity
• The initiative was established to investigate threats to national security and has charged scores of scientists and scholars

Jodi Xu Klein
Published: 2:00p

Former University of Tennessee professor Hu Anming, whose case has given fresh momentum to calls for the China Initiative to be investigated over whether it has targeted Asians. Photo: AP

More than 20 Asian-American advocacy groups sent a letter to US President Joe Biden on Thursday, urging the administration to pause its China Initiative and review whether the programme unfairly targeted individuals based on their race and ethnicity.

The China Initiative was established by the Justice Department in 2018 to investigate trade secret theft and economic espionage activities considered threats to national security. Since then, the agency has charged scores of scientists and scholars, mostly of Asian descent, with spying for China, fraud, and other crimes.

The US government recently dropped a number of cases because of lack of evidence and that has led to an increasing outcry that the investigations into these scientists and researchers were based on their being Chinese or from other Asian countries.

The Initiative “subjects Asian-American and Asian immigrant scientists and others – particularly those of Chinese descent – to racial profiling, surveillance and wrongful prosecutions, where no evidence of economic espionage or trade secret theft exists,” the letter said.

“We believe you should pause the initiative’s work, pending the results of an independent review to determine whether it unfairly targeted individuals based on their race, ethnicity, or ancestry,” the groups said.

The letter followed a meeting two weeks ago of AAPI community leaders, Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris at the White House to discuss the rise in anti-Asian sentiment. It also came on the heels of a group of nearly 100 senators and House representatives urging attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate the China Initiative programme.

In a letter to Garland last month, the lawmakers said they were “deeply troubled” about whether the programme had been used to target people based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin.

Last week, Eric Lander, director of the Office of Science and Technology, said the US had to “assiduously avoid basing policies or processes on prejudice – including those that could fuel anti-Asian sentiments or xenophobia.

“Prejudice is fundamentally unacceptable, and will backfire because it will make it harder to attract the best scientific minds from around the world,” Lander said. “We must affirm the integral role of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and people of all national origins in this country; welcome international students and scholars; and avoid casting aspersions on people because of their identity or origins.”

The case against former University of Tennessee professor Hu Anming, the first non-espionage case under the programme, ended in a mistrial in June after the jury split on whether to convict the defendant.

The Justice Department first investigated Hu, a tenured professor at the university’s department of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering, on the premise that he had spied for China. When the US government brought charges against Hu in February 2020, it dropped the espionage case and instead charged him with wire fraud and making false statements for hiding his relationship with the Peking University of Technology in grant applications he had made to Nasa.

After the mistrial, the US government said at the end of last month it would pursue a retrial. Human rights group the Committee of Concerned Scientists – a non-government organisation which advocates for the protection of human rights and scientific freedom of scientists and scholars – and Carl Patton, professor emeritus at Colorado State University, sent letters earlier this month to presiding judge Thomas Varlan calling for the dismissal of the case.

The Justice Department’s decision to retry the case gave fresh momentum to the effort to investigate whether the agency has used the programme against Asians.

The letter sent by the 100 lawmakers said the US government has brought charges against researchers and scientists of Asian descent over the years.

“Multiple people who happened to be of Asian descent have been falsely accused by the Department of Justice of espionage,” the letter said, citing cases of Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee, the National Weather Service hydrologist Sherry Chen, and Temple University physicist Xiaoxing Xi.

Thursday’s joint letter, spearheaded by Stop AAPI Hate and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, also called on the Biden administration to ramp up its efforts to protect the AAPI community ahead of the planned release of the results of the investigation on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, warning that it could be used to legitimise racist language and scapegoating.