McCarthyism

Table of Contents

Overview

What is McCarthyism?

Historical Key Figures

The Role of The Media - Then and Now

Today’s McCarthyism on Chinese and Asian Americans

Continuing Developments

Overview

During "China Week" in September 2024, Representative Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), took the House floor to denounce efforts to revive the "China Initiative," calling it a New McCarthyism. An era of suspicion, paranoia, and surveillance, McCarthyism serves as a historical warning against government overreach, racial profiling, and suppression of dissent. Recently, under the guise of national security, the U.S. government has enacted stringent measures against Chinese and Asian Americans, such as extensive alien land laws and the “China Initiative.”

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What is McCarthyism?

McCarthyism refers to the period in the early 1950s in the United States when Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to root out alleged communists in government, media, academia, and other institutions, often without substantial evidence. It has since become a term that describes the practice of making unsubstantiated accusations, using fear and intimidation to suppress dissent, and damaging reputations without proper evidence or due process.

Notoriously harsh on writers and entertainers, McCarthyism also targeted government officials, educators, and union leaders. Famous artists investigated include Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Leonard Bernstein, Lena Horne, Dalton Trumbo, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Burl Ives, and Dashiell Hammett.

McCarthyism led to investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and loyalty tests for federal employees. Many individuals lost their jobs, were blacklisted from industries (especially in Hollywood), or faced public shaming. The era created an atmosphere of fear and repression in which dissenting political views were brutally suppressed.

Although many of Senator McCarthy’s claims were eventually proven to be unsubstantiated, McCarthyism was fueled by rising anti-communist sentiment due to the inception of the Korean War and communist advances in eastern Europe and China. Furthermore, the first Red Scare (1917-1920), fueled by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and increasing labor unrest, remained fresh in the minds of many American citizens, exacerbating the pervasive atmosphere of hysteria and vigilance.

In 1954, the movement began to collapse after McCarthy’s own credibility was questioned during the televised Army-McCarthy hearings, leading to his censure by the U.S. Senate.

Ultimately, McCarthyism drove a wedge between the populace and the U.S. government, leaving American citizens wary of government overreach, racial profiling, and suppression of dissent.

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Historical Key Figures

Senator Joseph McCarthy

Born in Wisconsin in 1908, Joseph McCarthy began his career as an attorney, spending three years as a circuit judge. After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, he won the Republican nomination for the senate in 1946 and was elected.

On February 9, 1950, he delivered his infamous “Enemies from Within” speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, declaring that 205 communists had infiltrated the State Department, launching him into headlines nationwide. However, when testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he was unable to name a single communist in any government department. Historian Margaret Brennan noted that McCarthy’s numbers changed frequently, saying “He had no list. He had no names. It was all a big lie.” Following McCarthy’s initial claim, he began a relentless anti-communist crusade, investigating various government departments and questioning innumerable witnesses. Despite failing to identify a single “card-carrying communist,” his actions caused several people to lose their jobs and many more to receive popular condemnation. In the last two years of the Truman administration (1951-1953), 6,000 federal employees left the government. McCarthy’s relentless persecution of countless individuals and the forced conformity that the practice caused came to be known as McCarthyism.

Only in 1954 did public opinion finally turn against him, following a televised 36-day hearing on his charges of subversion by U.S. Army officers and civilian officials. The hearing exposed his aggressive and brutal interrogation techniques, famously prompting Joseph Nye Welch, special counsel to the army, to rebuke, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” In December of 1954, the Senate formally condemned him for conduct “contrary to Senate traditions,” an action taken only once before in Senate history.

McCarthy died in 1957 from alcoholism and withdrawal before he completed his second term in office.

Roy Cohn

Born to an affluent Jewish family in the Bronx in 1927, Roy Cohn graduated from Columbia University with both an undergraduate degree and a law degree by the age of 20. Cohn earned a national reputation as a ruthless prosecutor for his contribution to the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in 1951 and were executed by electric chair in 1953.

In 1953, Cohn served as chief counsel on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, headed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Cohn became instrumental to McCarthy’s efforts to investigate, interrogate, and purge federal employees accused of being communists. Cohn’s preference not to hold hearings in open forums and aggressive questioning of suspected Communists aligned with McCarthy’s inclination towards holding “executive sessions” and “off-the-record” sessions away from the Capitol. This strategy minimized public scrutiny and enabled the interrogation of witnesses without significant accountability. 

Through rhetoric linking communism with homosexuality, McCarthy and Cohn also instigated the Lavender Scare, a concurrent moral panic and wave of repression forcing thousands of LGBTQ+ federal employees out of their jobs. In McCarthy’s famous “Enemies from Within” speech, he singled out two of the cases involving alleged homosexuals. McCarthy and Cohn’s effort to purge LGBTQ+ employees led to an incredibly destructive and effective witch hunt, causing between 5,000 and 10,000 federal employees to resign from their jobs or be terminated. 

After resigning from the Senate subcommittee in 1954, Cohn returned to New York, establishing himself in private practice at Saxe, Bacon & Bolan. Cohn became a powerful attorney known for his aggressive and unethical legal strategies and had many high-profile clients, including several organized-crime bosses, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and Donald Trump. Over the years, he became Donald Trump’s mentor and close personal friend. The 2024 film The Apprentice chronicles their relationship.

During the debate over the passage of New York’s first gay rights bill, Cohn aligned himself with the Archdiocese of New York, calling homosexual teachers “a grave threat to our children.” While Cohn vehemently refused to self-identify as gay, his longtime friend Roger Stone shared that Cohn often had sexual encounters with men, and Cohn frequently attended public events with his partners. Cohn died from complications of AIDS in 1984. 

Edward R. Murrow

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow played a pivotal role in countering McCarthyism. 

Born in North Carolina in 1908, Murrow joined the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1935 and gained national fame through his highly reliable and dramatic eyewitness reportage of the German occupation of Austria, the German takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and the Battle of Britain during World War II. He returned to radio broadcasting in 1947 and moved on to television where he launched his broadcast See It Now.

On March 9, 1954, Murrow’s See It Now broadcast exposed McCarthy’s fear-based tactics, claiming McCarthy’s chief accomplishment had been “confusing the public mind as between the internal and external threats of communism.” Murrow reminded Americans that "accusation is not proof” and warned against being “driven by fear into an age of unreason,” famously ending the segment with the parting words “good night, and good luck.” Afterwards, CBS received tens of thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls praising the broadcast. 

By challenging McCarthyism when other journalists did not, Murrow profoundly shaped broadcast journalism, setting powerful standards with his unwavering commitment to factual reporting, democratic principles, and the press’s role as a vigilant watchdog. The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University continues this legacy, promoting ethical journalism, journalistic integrity, and strategic communication.

The House Un-American Activities Committee

Formed in 1938 as an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, the House un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946 and was known as the House Committee on Internal Security beginning in 1969. When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee. By the late 1940s, HUAC had acquired such power that the mere threat of investigation by it could ruin a person’s career.

While the HUAC remained staunchly anticommunist in nature, several of its members retained alarming affiliations and sympathies. Martin Dies Jr., the founding member of the committee, was a known supporter of the Klu Klux Klan (the Klan) and had spoken at several of its rallies. Tennessee Representative and HUAC member John E. Rankin was also a Klan supporter, as was lawyer, politician, and fellow HUAC member John S. Wood. On one occasion Wood defended the Klan, arguing that “The threats and intimidations of the Klan are an old American custom.” Martin Dies Jr. and John E. Rankin were also known antisemitics.

The committee especially targeted entertainers and artists in Hollywood, beginning a stringent campaign to ferret out “subversives” in the entertainment industry. Of seventeen subpoenaed screenwriters, producers, and directors, ten refused to answer the now-infamous question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?” on First Amendment grounds. Fined $1,000 and sentenced from six months to a year in jail, these ten became known as the Hollywood Ten. Six of the ten were Jewish.

According to Walter Goodman, author of The Committee (1964), “The source of Rankin’s animus against Hollywood — and he made no particular effort to conceal it — was the large number of Jews eminent in the film industry. In Rankin’s mind, to call a Jew a Communist was a tautology.”

In early 1947, President Harry S. Truman enacted executive order (EO) 9835 requiring a loyalty oath for all federal employees, designed to root out communist influence in the government. The vague nature of this EO allowed HUAC to begin widespread investigations of every person suspected of communist sympathies or affiliations. By the early 1950s, HUAC had investigated nearly a fifth of all federal government employees.

While HUAC never clearly defined what constituted an “un-American activity,” the committee remained anticommunist in nature. In 1948, Nixon and Rep. Karl Mundt coauthored two bills aimed at eradicating communist influences in the government. The first, the Mundt-Nixon Bill, required the federal registration of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) and its front organizations. The second sought to outlaw many activities of CPUSA but failed in the Senate before it could pass. 

HUAC’s severe anticommunist zeal, and particularly the Mundt-Nixon Bill, created a dilemma for many American communists. Members needed to register their organizations but failure to do so could result in imprisonment.

As an investigative committee, HUAC did not have the authority to prosecute suspected individuals, but they acquired much power through their ability to circumvent constitutional guarantees of due process, presumption of innocence, and free speech. HUAC has been criticized for violating First Amendment rights, particularly because its anticommunist agenda seemed to supersede the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of assembly.

The committee’s anticommunist investigations are often associated with McCarthyism, although Joseph McCarthy himself, as a U.S. Senator, had no direct involvement with the House committee. McCarthy was the chairman of the Government Operations Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate.

In the wake of McCarthy’s downfall, the prestige and authority enjoyed by HUAC began to gradually decline. In 1959, the committee was denounced by former President Harry S. Truman as “the most un-American thing in the country today.”

In August 1966, HUAC hearings called to investigate anti-Vietnam war activities were disrupted by hundreds of protestors. The committee faced witnesses who were openly defiant.

As author Joel Kovel remarked, “other nations never were able to define communism as somehow ‘un-’ the identity of that nation.”

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The Role of The Media - Then and Now

The media played a significant role in amplifying and affirming McCarthyism to the American public. Throughout McCarthy’s stringent crusade against communism, newspapers, radio stations, and television broadcasts continually reported his accusations uncritically, lending credibility to his unsubstantiated claims. In 1950, the New York Times covered McCarthy’s “Enemies from Within” speech without questioning its validity. Sensational headlines and constant broadcast coverage heightened public fear, reinforcing McCarthy’s portrayal of Communism as a pressing internal threat. Meanwhile, television brought the HUAC hearings directly into American homes, magnifying McCarthy’s influence.

Despite constant, uncritical coverage of McCarthy’s crusade throughout all media channels, “there was never anybody in government that they could prove to be a card-carrying communist,” according to historian Margaret Brennan.

While the media exacerbated the chaos, fear, and fervor of McCarthyism at its height, it also encouraged and accelerated McCarthy’s downfall. Namely, the 36-day hearing on McCarthy’s charges of subversion by U.S. Army officers was broadcast nationally, delivering an estimated 188 hours of television directly to American homes. Likewise, Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now broadcast exposed McCarthy’s fear-based tactics and reminded Americans that "accusation is not proof.”

Throughout U.S. history, the media has often depicted Americans and immigrants of Asian origin using biased and derogatory rhetoric, particularly during times of geopolitical tension. Their coverage has fueled harmful public perception and policies with lasting impacts on Asian communities.

Media Bias in the Case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee

On March 6, 1999, the New York Times published an inflammatory exposé, accusing “a Los Alamos computer scientist who is Chinese-American” of conveying American nuclear secrets to the Chinese government. This marked the beginning of a witch hunt by NYT reporters James Risen and Jeff Gerth. Just three days later, before any arrests or charges had been made, Risen reported the unnamed scientist to be Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born scientist working in the nuclear weapons design area at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Lee was subjected to a rushed, three-day interrogation by FBI officials before being fired from his job. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson directed that Dr. Lee be fired without review. 

Government officials believed the theft of American nuclear secrets from Los Alamos in the 1980s helped China miniaturize its bombs, accelerating its nuclear development to a level on par with the U.S. However, the suspected espionage was not detected until 1995, leaving the New York Times and many government officials to blame the White House for the delay, inaction, and skepticism. These criticisms gained traction as Republican lawmakers were simultaneously entrenched in a full-blown campaign to convince President Bill Cllinton of the dawn of a new cold war.

In December of 1999, Dr. Lee was finally arrested for 59 counts of downloading restricted data to unrestricted systems. According to experts, the codes he downloaded were so tailored to American testing and engineering that they would not have been intended for or useful to China. Dr. Lee was not charged with nuclear espionage because there was no evidence. Before his trial, he was placed into a 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement, shackled for his one hour of exercise. He was jailed in solitary confinement without bail for nine months. During family visits (one hour each week), he was forbidden to speak in Mandarin.

In September 2000, Dr. Lee pleaded guilty to one felony count of mishandling data and was released.

In 2006, Dr. Lee settled a lawsuit over violations of his privacy rights and received $1.65 million from the federal government and five news organizations, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press, The LA Times, and ABC News.

In Judge James A. Parker of Federal District court in Albuquerque’s statement to Dr. Lee, he expressed extraordinary remorse for the abuse of power by the executive branch throughout Dr. Lee’s case, vehemently insisting the executive branch "embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it.” He expressed his deep regret for his role in the case and issued a sincere apology.

After Dr. Lee’s release, the New York Times published a reflection on their role in the case, remaining “proud of work that brought into open a major national security problem” and “careful reporting” that “accurately portrayed a debate behind the scenes on the extent and importance of Chinese espionage.” The Times did express some remorse over not giving Dr. Lee “the full benefit of the doubt” but remained firm that they did not “initiate the case against Wen Ho Lee.”

In 2001, the Subcommittee on Department of Justice Oversight released the “Report on the Government’s Handling of the Investigation and Prosecution of Dr. Wen Ho Lee.” Despite finding insufficient evidence to support charges that Dr. Lee’s ethnic heritage was a factor in the government’s actions during the case, the FBI claimed that “Dr. Lee was more likely to have committed espionage for the People’s Republic of China because he was ‘overseas ethnic Chinese’” to obtain the warrant to search his house. Robert S. Vrooman, the former head of counterintelligence at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said that ethnicity “was a key factor” and that Dr. Lee was unfairly singled out for federal investigation because of his ethnicity.

In October 2000, Notra Trulock, former Director of Intelligence at the Department of Energy, vehemently denied that he held “‘racist views toward minority groups’ and that this was the factor in targeting Dr. Lee.” However, he also shared that Robert Vrooman alleged that he had stated “no ethnic Chinese should be allowed to work on U.S. nuclear weapons programs,” which Trulock claimed was “categorically false.”

In the words of then President Bill Clinton, “the whole thing was quite troubling.”

Media Bias in Japanese American Internment

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the FBI had identified German, Italian, and Japanese nationals who were suspected of being potential enemy agents and who were kept under constant surveillance. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, this suspicion spread to include all persons of Japanese descent, whether foreign born or American citizens. The task was turned over to the U.S. Army as a security concern.

In order to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt of the Western Defense Command believed stringent measures needed to be taken. DeWitt prepared a report with false evidence, arguing for the creation of military zones and Japanese detainment. His original report also included detainment of Germans and Italians, although the idea of rounding up people of European descent did not seem to be as popular. Despite the falsehoods included in his argument, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 with the stated intent of ensuring national security and preventing espionage on American shores.

Thereafter, the entire West Coast was deemed a military area and was divided into military zones, authorizing military commanders to exclude civilians from military zones. Although the EO did not specify a certain military group, the army began to enforce curfews that applied solely to Japanese Americans. Next, the army encouraged voluntary evacuation by Japanese Americans. Finally, Lt. General John L. DeWitt began the forced evacuation and detention of Japanese American West Coast residents. Acting under the authority of the EO and amid growing public paranoia and fear over the perceived threat Japanese Americans posed, the U.S. army targeted all Japanese Americans within varied distances from the Pacific.

In the span of four months, approximately 112,000 people (nearly two-thirds of whom were American citizens) were sent to “relocation centers” which were to be their homes for the remainder of the war. Anyone who was at least 1/16 Japanese was forcibly evacuated. 

Three Japanese American citizens challenged the constitutionality of the forced relocation and curfew orders through legal actions: Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Mitsuye Endo. Of the three, only Mitsuye Endo was determined to be “loyal” and allowed to leave the detention center in Topaz, Utah.

In Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, Justice Murphy of the Supreme Court wrote that Japanese internment is “another example of the unconstitutional resort to racism inherent in the entire evacuation program” and that “racial discrimination of this nature bears no reasonable relation to military necessity and is utterly foreign to the ideals and traditions of the American people.”

Fred Korematsu was arrested in 1942 for refusing to relocate to a Japanese internment camp. When the Supreme Court heard the case, his attorneys argued that the EO violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process of law. Although Korematsu lost the case, he became a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. In his dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Jackson argued the EO violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and called it “the legalization of racism.”

The final Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946. President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976. Only in 1988 did Congress acknowledge and apologize for the injustice of internment, providing $20,000 to each formerly incarcerated person.

Tennessee Rep. and HUAC member Rankin was a staunch proponent of Japanese American internment. In Michi Weglyn’s Years of Infamy, Rankin is quoted as saying “I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps.” In late 1942, he re-introduced Senate Bill 2293 which would have allowed for the removal of any ethnic Japanese in the U.S. and its territories. Rankin’s position on HUAC gave him the unique authority and audience to spread suspicion and paranoia about many of America’s immigrants and racial and religious minorities.

During Japanese American internment, American newspapers contributed to pervasive anti-Japanese sentiment by portraying Japanese Americans as disloyal spies and saboteurs. Headlines warned of a “Fifth Column” within the U.S., stoking fear and prejudice. This coverage, based on unsubstantiated claims, helped garner support for the internment of 120,000 persons of Japanese heritage.

Before his children’s books, Dr. Seuss worked as a political cartoonist and propagandist during World War II, creating cartoons and illustrations that were published in newspapers and used in military training films. One of his infamous cartoons published on February 13, 1942, depicts Japanese Americans lined up as the “Fifth Column” along the West Coast, awaiting the “signal from home,” playing into mass hysteria and derogatory stereotypes.

Two days after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing Japanese American internment, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial endorsing it, asserting that Japanese Americans posed a national security risk. Seventy-five years later, on February 19, 2017, the Los Angeles Times formally recanted its 1942 editorials. Acknowledging its own role in garnering public support for internment, the paper expressed regret for fueling anti-Japanese sentiment and drew parallels with the current climate replete with xenophobia, discrimination, and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The 2017 editorial warned against repeating such injustices, highlighting the need to protect civil liberties for all.

Recent Media Coverage and Bias

Today, many investigative journalists and media outlets uphold the principles Edward R. Murrow and others embodied.

Jamie Satterfield, investigative reporter at the Knoxville News Sentinel, built a reputation as a prolific and dedicated crime and courts reporter. Following the 2008 disaster at the Kingston coal-fired power plant in which more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash spilled onto nearby homes and waterways, Satterfield mined internal documents, lawsuits, and reports. She chronicled the names and circumstances of all of the employees at the plant that have died and fallen sick. In a related incident, she relentlessly reported on the health hazards at a local playground, in which coal ash waste was used as infill. Satterfield has earned recognition from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Awards, the First Amendment Center, and many more. After 27 years at Knoxville News Sentinel, Satterfield parted ways with her employer in 2021. It is not known if her relentless investigations were related to her departure.

During the “China Initiative,” MIT Technology Review played a significant role in holding the government accountable by embarking on a thorough research investigation to determine the initiative's efficacy. They found that only a quarter of people charged had been convicted. 

Although several reporters and media outlets remain committed to upholding journalistic integrity and the press’s role as a vigilant watchdog, many sources choose to be complicit by simply repeating and echoing the government’s narrative. This is especially harmful when it concerns critical issues such as racial profiling, public corruption, civil rights violations, and environmental crime.

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Today’s McCarthyism on Chinese/Asian Americans and Immigrants

The China Initiative

Today, Chinese and Asian Americans and immigrants are still facing unwarranted suspicion, investigations, and arrests under the guise of national security.

In November 2018, the Department of Justice launched the China Initiative, aiming to combat economic espionage and theft of intellectual property purportedly conducted by Chinese entities, including individuals and organizations with ties to the Chinese government. However, the project actually resulted in increased racial profiling and enhanced stigmatization of Asian Americans, in addition to government overreach and loss of scientific innovation.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions commenced the project on November 1, 2018 with no clear definition of what deemed a significant national security concern to be investigated under the initiative. Less than a year later, Kansas University Professor Feng “Franklin” Tao became the first academic and scientist of Chinese origin to be indicted.

By September 2021, multiple media outlets had questioned the efficacy of the initiative, following a string of highly publicized dismissed cases. Three months later, MIT Technology Review published two investigative reports on the China Initiative, finding that only about a quarter of people and institutions charged had been convicted and that most of the cases had little or no obvious connection to national security. Nearly 90% of defendants charged under the initiative are of Chinese heritage.

Officially, the China Initiative ended in February 2022 under the Biden Administration, but the harm it has inflicted on targeted individuals and the broader AAPI community remains.

Attempts to Revive the China Initiative

Despite its official end, Republican lawmakers are pushing to reinstate the initiative. In February 2025, Senator Rick Scott announced the reintroduction of his Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act to reinstate and codify President Trump’s CCP Initiative under the Department of Justice. The same day, Representative Lance Gooden reintroduced a companion bill in the House.

House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party vs. the House Un-American Activities Committee

In 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives established the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, focusing on economic and security competition with China.

In December of 2022, Rep. Kevin McCarthy unveiled the committee, writing:

In addition to international issues, the Committee also focuses on domestic issues regarding the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the U.S., such as Chinese purchases of American farmland. It also investigates human rights issues and “ideological warfare.”

The House Select Committee is reminiscent of the House un-American Activities Committee in its targeting of a specific subgroup under the guise of national security. Like its infamous predecessor, it risks wielding investigative power not as a tool for genuine security concerns, but as a means to exacerbate racial prejudice, bias, and stigmas. Without clear safeguards or accountability, the Committee could easily devolve into an entity that issues unsubstantiated, warrantless claims, tarnishing reputations without due process. Such practices not only fuel suspicion and paranoia across the population, but also discourage legitimate political expression and further entrench xenophobia.

Qian Xuesen 钱学森 and Brain Drain

Born in Hangzhou in 1911, Qian was raised in an aristocratic family with well-educated parents, one of whom (his father) established China’s national education system. Qian graduated from the top of his class at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大学) and was awarded a rare scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study aeronautical engineering. From there, he transitioned to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he studied aerodynamics and jet propulsion.

During World War II, he helped create and organize the U.S. long-range rocket research program and directed research on the country’s first successful solid-fueled missile at the newly established Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). Qian was given security clearance to work on classified weapons research and even served on the U.S. government’s Science Advisory Board. Along with the influential aeronautical engineer Theodore von Karman, Qian was sent on an extraordinary mission to Germany under the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel in 1945. He became the Robert H. Goddard Professor of Jet Propulsion at Caltech and the director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center.

In 1949, a new director at the JPL expressed concerns about the possible presence of a spy ring within the lab, sharing his suspicions with colleagues. Notably, according to author and lecturer Fraser MacDonald, all of the suspected spies were either Jewish or Chinese. As the fervor of McCarthyism rapidly gained traction, the FBI accused Qian and others in the lab of being communists and threats to national security. Qian was detained on grounds of espionage and placed on house arrest for five years. 

He returned to China in 1955 with his wife and two children where he became the director of the Fifth Academy of the Chinese Ministry of Defense. Today, he is often hailed as “the father of Chinese aerospace” because he personally mentored the inaugural generation of revolutionary Chinese aerospace engineers. His political integrity and patriotic zeal were instrumental in securing critical institutional and financial support.

After his retirement in 1970, Qian focused on music, the martial arts, and traditional Chinese philosophy, living the last two decades of his life in relative isolation.

Qian’s story marks the beginning of a much larger problem: brain drain. 

The Trump administration’s actions in the spring of 2025 have prompted chaos, confusion, and fear as mass deportations and raids frequently occur. In addition, the State Department has prompted much confusion over international student visas as it implemented a three-week pause on interviews and then severely tightened the visa screening process. As such, many international students are scared to leave the country to visit relatives, fearing they will not be allowed re-entry. Many international students do not consider pursuing higher education in the U.S. at all.

The Trump administration’s abrupt and volatile cancellation of funding and grants has also discouraged many scientists and academics. In March 2025, Nature conducted a survey asking American scientists if they would consider leaving the U.S. Of the over 1,200 respondents, 75% indicated that they are considering leaving, with many searching for jobs in Canada and the U.S. 

Other Victims

In 2010, the FBI investigated Dr. Yanping Chen in relation to her previous work with the Chinese astronaut program. Dr. Chen became a U.S. citizen in 2001 and founded the University of Management and Technology in Arlington, Virginia in 1998. The FBI’s investigation of her was dropped in 2016 and no charges were ever filed. However, her confidential information was leaked to a Fox News reporter, Katherine Herridge, who used the information to publish three stories implying that Dr. Chen was gathering intelligence for the Chinese government. Herridge has refused to name the identity of her source.

In October 2013, scientists at Eli Lilly, Guoqing Cao and Shuyu Li, were arrested for passing $55 million worth of secrets to a Chinese drug company. They were jailed and placed under house arrest. Over a year later, the charges were dropped.

In October 2014, Sherry Chen, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service, was arrested. She had sent publicly available information to an old classmate in China and referred that person to a colleague for further information. The colleague reported her as a potential spy. While charges were dropped six months after her arrest, the National Weather Service refused to give Chen her job back.

In May 2015, Xiaoxing Xi, chair of the Temple University physics department, was arrested for allegedly sharing designs for a “pocket heater,” a device used in semiconductor research, with contacts in China. However, investigators without the proper scientific background had misinterpreted the plans and the charges were dropped four months later.

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Continuing Developments

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