US must ensure equal legal protection for all scholars, including Chinese

Scientific knowledge may be universal but scientists can suffer discrimination and persecution like everyone else. Recent reports of Chinese researchers in the United States being accused of smuggling biological materials suggest carelessness on the part of the researchers or, more likely, deliberate scapegoating by US law enforcement agencies. They appear to fit an enduring pattern of official harassment against Chinese scientists under the guise of combating industrial espionage and intellectual property theft.

In the case of the three researchers charged last November, top Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department officials accused them of trying “to advance a malicious agenda” by smuggling biological samples. The specimen turned out to be mostly harmless, tiny, transparent worms. A court subsequently dismissed their cases.

Not everyone was so lucky. Wang Danhao, a fellow university researcher and a promising talent in the field of semiconductors, died from a fall in March after being questioned by federal agents. In a letter to this newspaper, the California Scholars for Academic Freedom criticised the university for “its lack of support for its Chinese scholars in the face of heavy-handed tactics employed by federal authorities”, adding that they were “especially disturbed by the silence of the University of Michigan administration”.