Conference focuses on impact of US crackdown on Chinese spying

As the US steps up its campaign against Chinese spying and theft of US trade secrets, the spillover effect is a rising suspicion and fear targeting Chinese Americans and a drop in Chinese scientists and students coming to the US to further their research and studies.

A group of leading policy makers, legal experts, educators, business leaders, scientists, and community leaders convened Saturday (Sept. 28) in Silicon Valley to tackle the impact of rising US-China tensions on the Chinese American community and American society as a whole. 

Brought together by the Committee of 100 (C100), an American nonprofit organization of prominent Chinese Americans, the group detailed a heightened rise in scrutiny of Chinese Americans and people of Chinese descent, especially those who work in science and technology, and the chilling effect on civil liberties, as well as American science, technology and research initiatives.

"With growing US-China tensions and fears of Chinese espionage, we hear clearly from our members that Asian Americans, especially those who work in the STEM fields, are facing an increasingly hostile environment where our loyalty is being consistently and unfairly challenged," said H. Roger Wang, C100 chairman.

One of the Chinese Americans greatly harmed by the US crackdown is Xiaoxing Xi, who told his story at the Palo Alto event. Until May 2015, he was the respected chairman of Temple University’s physics department. FBI agents burst into his home outside Philadelphia with guns drawn and accused him of being a spy.

Four months later, federal prosecutors dropped the charges after experts provided affidavits that the information Xi sent to scientists in China was widely known and publicly available on the internet.

But the damage was done, says Xi, who grew emotional as he continued his story about suffering the great shame, the mounting legal expenses and the loss of his university chairmanship and most of his federal research grants and contracts.

"We are a nation built on immigrants, and we must not allow our fears to create an environment that erodes America's talent pool nor America's values of equal opportunity for all, freedom of inquiry, scientific integrity, and openness," said Wang.

C100 research from 2017 shows that the percentage of people of Chinese heritage charged under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) tripled from 2009 to 2017, and that defendants of Asian heritage convicted of espionage received sentences over twice as severe as those of other ethnicities.

At the conference, speakers detailed the negative impact of a climate of fear and suspicion on individual scientists and researchers, as well as on a wide range of industries, universities, research institutions and businesses critical to U.S. innovation and economic leadership.

This is a hot topic in Silicon Valley, the center of new tech innovation in the US, where about 60% of its employees in the “innovation industries” are foreign born — primarily from China and India" — said Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy organization representing 350 of the region’s employers. Restricting that flow of talent would be “catastrophic for our economy,” he said.

Dr. David D. Ho, one of world's top researchers for HIV for which he was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 2014: "There's a chill in the air for Chinese and Chinese-American scientists. Over 250 scientists are being investigated in over 60 institutions, many of whom are Chinese or Chinese American. 

"Science depends on open and free exchange. Science has no borders. Science by definition is global. The real threat is not from occasional cases of espionage; the real threat is not believing in science, and the creation of a toxic environment that drives away talented Chinese and Chinese-American scientists."

A survey last year by the American Physical Society found that Chinese applicants to U.S. PhD programs in physics dropped by 16.4% from 2017 to 2018 — larger than an overall decline of nearly 12% among all international applicants.

There are widespread reports that Chinese students are facing visa delays and rejections, which many universities fear will cause a sharp decline in their numbers, research talent and tuition revenue, according to the L.A. Times.

"The US-China relationship is the world's most consequential bi-lateral relationship. We must be concerned about security concerns and condemn illegal activity, but in recent years there have been many cases of wrongful prosecution. Our pride in our heritage does not mean we are any less loyal or patriotic to America," said Gary Locke, former US Ambassador to China and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

A survey last year by the American Physical Society found that Chinese applicants to U.S. PhD programs in physics dropped by 16.4% from 2017 to 2018 — larger than an overall decline of nearly 12% among all international applicants.

There are widespread reports that Chinese students are facing visa delays and rejections, which many universities fear will cause a sharp decline in their numbers, research talent and tuition revenue, according to the L.A. Times.

Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics who served as energy secretary under Obama and now teaches at Stanford University, said the US has richly benefited from immigrants who have helped the nation make sizable leaps in science and technology — including those fleeing Nazi Germany who advanced the field of atomic energy and many Chinese scientists who came or stayed here during the Cultural Revolution," reports the LA Times. He said if not for Chinese “stars,” Standord is leading the battery storage research today — and questioned whether the Trump administration’s more restrictive immigration policies would alter that.

Federal officials tried to assure the C100 gathering that the  government is innocent of racial profiling. The US is targeting illegal conduct, not particular groups of people, said David Stilwell, assistant secretary of State and an East Asia expert, said in a live video linkup.

“Our concern is not focused on any ethnic groups or nationalities,” said Stillwell.

However, he admits, the FBI is investigating more than 1,000 cases of attempted theft of intellectual property, and “almost all lead back to China.”

One of the conference outcomes is that C100 will generate recommendations to share with congressional leaders, the scientific and educational communities, law-enforcement, businesses, and civic organizations and communities.

Conference Chair Charlie Woo noted, "It is our hope to come together and find balanced solutions that protect national security, uphold the civil liberties of all Americans, and continue to foster the welcoming environment for the development of science, technology and research that America has always been known for."

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