Suspected of discrimination against Chinese American MPs launch investigation into FBI and National Institutes of Health

Suspected of discrimination against Chinese American MPs launch investigation into FBI and NIH

Reporter Hu Dingkun

A few days ago, Jamie Ruskin, chairman of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, and Zhao Meixin, chairman of the Congressional Asian American Caucus, and the first U.S. female Chinese member of the U.S., jointly announced that they would (NIH) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated an investigation after reports of these agencies using Chinese scientists as potential intellectual property theft.

"These reports raise serious concerns that innocent people are being implicated in this operation," Ruskin and Zhao Meixin said in the investigation statement.

The statement specifically cited the following evidence. According to the FBI's "instructions", in 2018, the NIH sent 18,000 letters asking managers to step up the review of scientists with links to foreign countries, especially scientists with links to China. Since 2009, 52% of U.S. lawsuits filed under the Economic Espionage Act have been against Chinese scientists. Compared with non-Chinese defendants, Chinese defendants are more than twice as likely to be eventually acquitted or to withdraw all charges. There may be many cases of "unjust, false and wrong".

Ruskin and Zhao Meixin wrote to NIH Dean Collins and FBI Director Christopher Ray, asking the NIH and FBI to cooperate in the investigation and provide the necessary information.

The letter to Collins wrote that the NIH's actions were "racist" and "new red panic". NIH needs to submit a copy of 18,000 letters to the subcommittee where Ruskin is located; and the address of the recipient; the case of NIH investigating cases involving "theft of intellectual property rights", especially the information of the persons involved and whether they were initiated by the FBI; Since June, the NIH and the FBI have recorded correspondence regarding investigations of Chinese people.

The letter to Christopher Ray listed the FBI's erroneous allegations against Chinese scientists such as Chen Xiafen and Wu Xiaoxing, and stated that the FBI requires managers of universities and research institutions to cooperate with them to review Chinese teachers and researchers. The letter requested the FBI to provide information on all cases related to "theft of intellectual property rights" since 2014, especially the ethnicity of the persons involved; all documents or communication records between the FBI and research institutions related to monitoring Chinese students and scholars; and the FBI and NIH's Related communication and so on.