Feds’ campaign to root out spies has morphed into racial profiling of Chinese, says legal advocates

Franklin Tao

Scientists, researchers and students of Chinese descent have been the target of a government campaign that is practicing racial profiling say two civil rights organizations.

Advancing Justice – AAJC and Advancing Justice – ALC filed an amicus brief Wednesday (Aug. 20) in United States v. Tao, providing significant evidence of racial profiling against Asian American and immigrant scientists and researchers. 

The two Asian American civil rights organizations submitted the brief in support of Dr. Feng “Franklin” Tao to show opposition to the government’s increased efforts to profile and target Chinese American scientists and researchers based on ethnicity under the pretext of ferreting out economic espionage. 

In United States v. Tao, Dr. Tao, a tenured engineering professor at the University of Kansas, is fighting criminal allegations for not disclosing to the University an alleged affiliation with a university in China.

“Failure to disclose information on a university form is not economic espionage,” said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Advancing Justice – AAJC. 

“Xenophobia from leadership and agents within the U.S. government has translated to real consequences for the Chinese and Asian American community," said Yang. "Chinese scientists and researchers, like Dr. Tao, are caught in the Department of Justice’s broad net for prosecutions and sudden criminalization of minor infractions and we are deeply concerned with the pattern of misguided suspicion and racial discrimination we are seeing in these cases."

The government has been mounting a broad campaign scrutinizing and targeting Chinese American scientists, researchers and students through the China Initiative. Fueled by xenophobia, the China Initiative was adopted by the Department of Justice in 2018 for the purported purpose of combating economic espionage. 

Out of fear that government funding might be withheld, some institutions such as universities or organizations conducting research have been cooperating with investigators. 

The China Initiative is part of the latest wave of xenophobia against Chinese and Asian Americans and follows a long history of Asian Americans and immigrants being criminalized, stereotyped as “perpetual foreigners,” scapegoated, and profiled as spies disloyal to the United States, say the community advocates.

FBI Director Christopher Wray reported on July 7 that his agency is “opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours.” Of the 5,000 such cases currently on the FBI ledger, “almost half are related to China,” said Wray reports The Diplomat.

“The government needs to prosecute people who steal national security and trade secrets, but targeting people of Chinese descent for investigation without evidence of wrongdoing is not how to do that,” noted Glenn Katon, litigation director at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and former Department of Justice trial attorney. 

“Bringing dubious charges against people like Dr. Tao for conduct the government would not have known or cared about but for the China Initiative is discriminatory and a waste of resources.”

"We have seen a surge in prosecutions as the government increases pressure on academic institutions to criminalize previously administrative issues and federal agencies to increase prosecution efforts across the country," says Keaton. 

Data and individual cases of wrongful arrests and prosecutions along with biased rhetoric from public officials reveal that racial bias exists in the charging, prosecution, and sentencing of Chinese, Asian Americans, and immigrants.

The amicus brief addresses the government’s broad campaign to scrutinize and target Chinese American scientists and researchers and discusses how the government’s xenophobic and overzealous prosecutions does real harm to the lives of Chinese and Asian Americans and immigrant communities.

In a meeting held last year by the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, and the arts, the FBI denied the racial profiling charge. 

“With growing U.S. – 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, Committee of 100 chair.

“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,” Wang said.