[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by beowulf

Great topic Stephen. Let me throw some fuel on this fire:


Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases

The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested this morning and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement. Lieber will appear this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts.

Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye is currently in China.

Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China. On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements. He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.

Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 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.

...

I wonder what was in those 21 vials?

This is correct, Beowulf. Wuhan University of Technology paid Lieber $50,000 a month, approximately $158,000 in living expenses and $1.5 million to establish a research laboratory in exchange for working on behalf of the university for “not less than nine months a year” beginning in 2011, charging documents say.

Also, DOJ has documented that the Thousand Talents Plan have rewarded individuals for stealing proprietary information and violating export controls. One of the charges against Zaosong Zheng was for...violating export controls.

And just to clarify once again, I didn't start this thread to start or throw fuel on any fire, but rather share the questions that arose for me from reading a published scientifc paper.