Overview

On September 8, 2021, a group of 177 Stanford University faculty members from more than 40 departments, including 8 Nobel laureates, sent an open letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, requesting that he terminate the Department of Justice's "China Initiative."

Three key flaws of the "China Initiative" were identified:

The "China Initiative" disproportionally targets researchers of Chinese origin.
In most of the "China Initiative" cases involving academics, the alleged crime has nothing to do with scientific espionage or intellectual property theft.
The "China Initiative" is harming the U.S. science and technology enterprise and the future of the U.S. STEM workforce.

While acknowledging the importance to U.S. of protecting both intellectual property and information that is essential to our national and economic security, the faculty members express their concerns of racial profiling and the harm to the United States' research and technology competitiveness. The initiative has led to a significant increase of investigations and prosecutions to researchers in academia, with most cases unrelated to intellectual property theft or scientific/economic espionage. The investigations have been disproportionately targeting researchers of Chinese origin. According to the letter, the chilling effect of the "China Initiative" is discouraging many scholars from coming to or staying in the U.S. Therefore, the "China Initiative" should be terminated.

The Winds of Freedom Website

The Stanford faculty members created a website to host the open letter and provide background and other related information. The name "Winds of Freedom" for the website comes from the Stanford motto "Die Luft der Freiheit weht" ("The Winds of Freedom Blow").

The website provides instructions on further action and tracks continuing developments.

In particular, a qualified endorser is encouraged to consider a letter from faculty at his/her institution to either endorse the Stanford letter or send a similar letter. A copy of the Stanford letter is provided, along with a Google form template and some instructions which could be used to collect signatories.

A qualified endorser is defined as a person with the current or former rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer, scholar, or administrator, who has a valid and verifiable .edu email address at an accredited university or similar educational institution in the United States. Titles and associations are for identification only; endorsers do not represent the university or institution. Where judgment on the status of an endorser may be needed, final decision will be made by the organizers of the campaign.

Faculty members at Baylor College of Medicine, Princeton University, Southern Illinois University Faculty Senate, Temple University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Irvine, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University would soon send their letters to Attorney General Garland.

APA Justice Launched Parallel Campaign

On October 14, 2021, APA Justice launched a campaign in collaboration with the Stanford co-organizers, calling for additional faculty members and qualified endorsers from universities and educational institutions across the U.S. to endorse the Stanford letter. Qualified endorsers might therefore join the campaign in two ways:

Sign on to this nationwide campaign as individuals: https://bit.ly/EndorseStanfordLetter
Follow the Instructions in the Winds of Freedom website on further action to endorse the Stanford letter as part of an institutional letter: https://bit.ly/38ZxKre

On November 3, 2021, APA Justice submitted a letter to Attorney General (AG) Garland. It was co-signed by 841 faculty members, scholars, and administrators from 202 universities and educational institutions across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The letter called for AG Garland to terminate the “China Initiative.”

On November 24, 2021, APA Justice sent a letter to AG Garland and requested the inclusion of letters and comments from almost 2,000 faculty members, scholars, and administrators nationwide as part of the thorough review of the “China Initiative” being conducted by Assistant AG Matt Olsen.

January 21, 2022, APA Justice sent a letter to AGl Garland, adding another 357 co-signers to the nationwide campaign.

The parallel campaigns continued until the end of the China Initiative in February 2022.

Final Tally of the National Campaign

On March 3, 2022, the records showed that 3,119 faculty members from 231 institutions co-signed letters to AG Garland, calling for the termination of the China Initiative. They covered all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

In addition, 251 individuals endorsed the Stanford faculty letter to end the "China Initiative" at change.com.