China has defended its international scientific exchange programs after the conviction of a Harvard University professor in the US for hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.
In a strongly worded response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, "We have noted that US justice departments' repression of scientists and damage to normal China-US scientific and technological exchange in the name of combating economic espionage have already evoked doubts among visionary people in the US."
Lijian stressed that China's talent exchange and cooperation programs with other countries are essentially no different from the common practice of other countries, including the US, and that US government institutions and politicians should not stigmatize them. "The US should do more that benefits scientific and technological cooperation and people-to-people exchange between China and the US," he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Harvard professor was convicted by a US federal jury in connection with lying to federal authorities about his affiliation with a Chinese-run recruitment program.
Charles Lieber, 62, was convicted following a six-day jury trial of two counts of making false statements to federal authorities, two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (FBAR) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
US Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel will sentence Lieber at a later date that has not yet been scheduled, The US Justice Department said in a statement. Lieber was indicted in June 2020 and was subsequently charged in a superseding indictment in July 2020.
Lieber served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which received more than $15 million in federal research grants between 2008 and 2019. Unbeknownst to his employer, Lieber became a "Strategic Scientist" at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) and, later, a contractual participant in China's Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015.
China's Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent talent recruitment plans designed to attract, recruit and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China's scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.
Under the terms of Lieber's three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber a salary of up to $50,000 per month, living expenses of up to $150,000 and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT.
In 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied to federal authorities about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and his affiliation with WUT, the justice department said. In tax years 2013 and 2014, Lieber earned income from WUT in the form of salary and other payments made to him pursuant to the Strategic Scientist and Thousand Talents Contracts, which he did not disclose to the IRS on his federal income tax returns.
The case is among the highest-profile to come from the US Department of Justice's so-called "China Initiative."
( With inputs from ANI )
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