December 2, 2021
Table of Contents
DOJ Changed Its Online Records
Matt Olsen to Conduct DOJ Review
APA Justice Reported DOJ Change of Records
Overview
On December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published the first of two investigative reports titled The US crackdown on Chinese economic espionage is a mess. We have the data to show it.
According to the report, the US government’s China Initiative sought to protect national security. MIT Technology Review reveals how far it has strayed from its goals.
Among its major findings are:
The DOJ has neither officially defined the China Initiative nor explained what leads it to label a case as part of the initiative
The initiative’s focus increasingly has moved away from economic espionage and hacking cases to “research integrity” issues, such as failures to fully disclose foreign affiliations on forms
A significant number of research integrity cases have been dropped or dismissed
Only about a quarter of people and institutions charged under the China Initiative have been convicted
Many cases have little or no obvious connection to national security or the theft of trade secrets
Nearly 90% of the defendants charged under the initiative are of Chinese heritage
Although new activity appears to have slowed since Donald Trump lost the 2020 US presidential election, prosecutions and new cases continue under the Biden administration
The Department of Justice does not list all cases believed to be part of the China Initiative on its webpage and has deleted others linked to the project.
DOJ Changed Its Online Records
Also on December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published the second of its two investigative reports titled We built a database to understand the China Initiative. Then the government changed its records.
Since the US government launched the China Initiative in 2018, the main source of information about it has been press releases on the Department of Justice’s China Initiative webpage announcing arrests, charges, and indictments.
But the record is incomplete. APA Justice and other civil rights groups have been tracking the reported cases and changes made to the initiative’s webpage out of concerns about its potential for racial profiling. They have seen gaps and inconsistencies in the DOJ’s messaging.
“I’d like to see a balance sheet,” said Jeremy Wu, who held senior civil rights and ethics positions in the US government before co-founding the APA Justice Task Force, one of the groups that is independently tracking the China Initiative. “What did we gain? How many spies did we catch, compared to how much damage that has [been] done not only to individuals, but also to the future of American science and technology?”
The MIT Technology Review database is not that balance sheet. But it is an important step toward answering some of the questions Wu poses—questions that the US government has not answered. Rather, it has added to the confusion: two days after MIT Technology Review reached out with a request for comment, DOJ made major updates to its webpage, removing cases that do not support its narrative of a successful counterintelligence effort.
A link to the MIT Technology Review database is located here: https://bit.ly/3xYhp5T
Matt Olsen to Conduct DOJ Review
During a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the Department of Justice on October 21, 2021, Rep. Ted raised the concerns of racial profiling by citing the acquitted case of Professor Anming Hu as an example and requested Attorney General Merrick Garland to review the China Initiative. In response, Garland committed Matt Olsen to conduct a review upon Olsen’s confirmation as the next Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
Watch Rep. Ted Lieu’s questions during the hearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BcwIK269zs (video from 2:52:28 to 2:57:53)
Matthew Olsen was sworn in on November 1, 2021. He filled the position vacated by John Demers.
APA Justice Reported DOJ Change of Records
On November 24, 2021, APA Justice sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, making two requests on the pending review of the China Initiative:
To ensure credibility and integrity for the review process, we request the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the official scope and boundaries of the “China Initiative” and a complete list and a formal count of the “China Initiative” cases since the program was launched in November 2018. An unannounced and unexplained update of the DOJ online "China Initiative" report on November 19, 2021 shows the removal of about 20 cases from previous record, including the dismissed or acquitted cases of 7 scientists and researchers - Anming Hu, Qing Wang, Chen Song, Xin Wang, Juan Tang, Kaikai Zhao, and Guan Lei.
We request the DOJ to include letters and comments from almost 2,000 faculty members, scholars, and administrators nationwide as part of the thorough review of the “China Initiative.” As of November 23, 2021, a total of 1,959 faculty members from 223 institutions nationwide have endorsed the Stanford letter and joined the call to end the "China Initiative." The nationwide campaign is continuing until the "China Initiative" has ended. The latest counts and comments are posted publicly online at https://bit.ly/3wwrD8A.
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DOJ Changed Its Online Records
On December 2, 2021, MIT Technology Review published two investigative reports on the China Initiative as newly appointed Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen was conducting a review of the initiative.
11. MIT Technology Review Investigative Reports
