Racial bias pinned as driving security probes

US urged to stop disrupting sci-tech cooperation, end political manipulation

A mistrial of a US-based scientist charged with hiding ties to China has put the spotlight on the so-called China Initiative, a controversial program criticized for targeting scientists of Chinese descent and harming the US national interest.

Since the program was launched in 2018 with the aim of investigating cases of economic espionage, US federal prosecutors have escalated the crackdown on researchers and scientists for their work with Chinese universities. Dozens of prosecutions have got underway.

The trial of Anming Hu, a former associate professor in the department of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering at the University of Tennessee, was the first of such prosecutions to reach a trial under the program. The case was declared a mistrial last week after the jury could not break a deadlock.