Harvard University chemistry and engineering professor Charles Lieber was found guilty of lying about his ties to the Chinese government.
Last year, Lieber was indicted and charged with making false statements to federal authorities about his participation in a Chinese-run program that seeks to lure American scientists to advance the communist nation’s scientific development.
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported:
Mr. Lieber, who holds joint appointments in Harvard University’s chemistry and engineering departments and is a renowned expert in the field of nanoscience, was accused of lying to government investigators about his participation in the Chinese government’s Thousand Talents program aimed at wooing foreign experts. He also was charged with failing to disclose cash payments from the program on his income tax returns and concealing the existence of a Chinese bank account.
The verdict, returned after less than three hours of deliberations, marks a stunning fall for Mr. Lieber, who came under scrutiny by federal investigators over an academic partnership with the Wuhan University of Technology that dates back a decade. Prosecutors showed documentary evidence that Mr. Lieber had signed a Thousand Talents agreement with Wuhan that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars — some in cash and some deposited into a Chinese bank account.
Indeed, the Chinese Communist Party has worked tirelessly to acquire footholds in American higher education. For instance, government officials monitor Chinese students’ behavior to ensure that they are not speaking negatively of their home nation’s regime. In one such incident, the family of Zhihao Kong — a student at Purdue University — was visited by government agents after Kong participated in an online rehearsal commemoration for the Tiananmen massacre.
Purdue President Mitch Daniels later sent a letter to students, staff, and faculty explaining that administrators had learned about the incident.
“We regret that we were unaware at the time of these events and had to learn of them from national sources,” Daniels wrote. “That reflects the atmosphere of intimidation that we have discovered surrounds this specific sort of speech.”
“Any such intimidation is unacceptable and unwelcome on our campus. Purdue has punished less personal, direct and threatening conduct. Anyone taking exception to the speech in question had their own right to express their disagreement, but not to engage in the actions of harassment which occurred here,” Daniels continued. “If those students who issued the threats can be identified, they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action. Likewise, any student found to have reported another student to any foreign entity for exercising their freedom of speech or belief will be subject to significant sanction.”
Beyond higher education, American corporations — seeking to benefit from China’s large and quickly growing consumer economy — willingly capitulate to the communist regime. Most recently, the NFL faced heat for publishing a map that showed Taiwan belonging to China, while news broke that Apple secretly signed a $275 billion agreement with the Chinese government in which Apple vowed to aid China’s economy and technology industries.