Harvard nanoscience expert Charles Lieber goes on trial for what the government alleges were his efforts to conceal his links to the Wuhan University of Technology in China
Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber goes on federal trial in Boston Tuesday over whether he misled the U.S. Defense Department and others about his relationship with a Chinese university, testing the government’s policing of U.S.-China collaborations after a similar case ended in an acquittal earlier this year.on charges of lying to government agents about his involvement with a Chinese talent-recruitment program and the money he received through it.
Prosecutors have accused more than a dozen academics of lying about their China affiliations when applying for federal taxpayer support for their research. While such affiliations aren’t illegal, prosecutors said funding agencies need a clear picture of them before making decisions about what projects to support.
In a March letter, dozens of colleagues of Mr. Lieber, who is 62 years old and suffering from an incurable lymphoma, described him as the victim of an “unjust criminal prosecution” and said the cases were “discouraging U.S. scientists from collaborating with peers in other countries, particularly China.”
When Rep. Ted Lieu asked Attorney General Merrick Garland in October about the Tennessee case and how the department could ensure it wasn’t wrongfully targeting people of Asian descent, Mr. Garland said the new head of the Justice Department’s national-security division would review the division’s activities. “I can assure you that cases will not be pursued based on discrimination, but only on facts justifying them,” Mr. Garland said.
In one email, for example, Mr. Lieber allegedly told an associate two days after his interview with Defense Department agents: “I will be careful about what I discuss with Harvard University, and none of this will be shared with government investigators at this time.”
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