Prosecuting Asian-American Scientists for Espionage Is a Shortsighted Strategy

Scientific American ^ | March 22, 2021 | Alicia Lai

[Stravinsky]

When catching spies, it is tempting to cast a broad net despite risk of making false accusations. Recently, the Justice Department has done just that. In an effort to crack down on what it depicts as an intellectual espionage campaign by China, it has revved up its prosecutions for scientific espionage and intellectual property theft against Asian-American citizens—from the notable case of Wen Ho Lee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999, to Gang Chen at MIT this January.

It’s a familiar cycle, yet somehow shocking each time: immigrant and naturalized scientists are accused of disloyalty. Many are preemptively imprisoned and stripped of professional positions. Accusations of espionage are often found to be erroneous and ungrounded in science, then dropped. Afterwards, targeted scientists have raised plausible claims of racial profiling under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, at least one currently pending in federal court.

...

Representative Ted Lieu states that erroneous espionage prosecutions are “the latest example of our government’s unfortunate inability to distinguish between American citizens and foreign adversaries.” One study finds that the proportion of defendants charged under the Economic Espionage Act who were Chinese or Chinese American rose from 17 percent to 52 percent between 2009 and 2015. More crucial is the rate of false positives: defendants of Chinese ethnicity have been unjustly accused at twice the rate of non-Chinese defendants.

[Stravinsky]

More from Unscientific American.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Unscientific Unamerican

[MRadtke]

Scientific American is neither.

[artichokegrower]

Talk to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg about heavy handed prosecution for stealing national secrets.

[Rurudyne]

People don’t prosecute them because they’re Asian but because they’re thought to be spies.

Not prosecuting people you think may be spies because they’re Asian is as dumb as not prosecuting rioters because they’re Left wingers.

[LuxAerterna]

Of course they purposely conflate and confuse “Asian-American” with people who have direct ties to China.

[BobL]

So does ‘Scientific American’ still think it was a good idea for the West to build the Virology Lab in Wuhan that caused a worldwide lockdown and also allowed the Democrats to steal the 2020 election?

I know, I know, the answer to Part 2, of course, is YES. But in 12 months, it will be NO, as they realize that the beast they help unleashed is coming after them, also.

[Kickass Conservative]

Shortsighted? I thought all Orientals were Nearsighted.

[rlmorel]

They can pound sand.

[Carl Vehse]

Why is Scientific American publishing propaganda that gives aid and comfort to the enemy?

[nuke_road_warrior]

The evidence for mishandling restricted information was fairly clear for Wen Ho Lee, and he did in fact plead guilty to that charge. There was only circumstantial evidence that he actuated delivered the information to Communist Chinese agents, and the charges were subsequently dropped. Hardly an anti-asian which hunt.

[Stentor]

Why is Scientific American publishing propaganda that gives aid and comfort to the enemy?

Maybe this aid and comfort is a two way street?

[unread]

Prosecuting Asian-Americans for Espionage.. Really..? When, in the world, are they going to go after blm and antifa.!!

[Fedora]

In 2010 the Asian American Action Fund endorsed Ted Lieu and Kamala Harris (dual endorsement) for California Attorney General in the June 8 California primary election. . .November 14, 2015 Press Release: Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today issued the following statement after leading a historic Congressional delegation to Tibet, Beijing and Hong Kong. . .“In Beijing, the delegation met with the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang; National People’s Congress Chairman, Zhang Dejiang; and National People’s Congress Vice Chairman, Zhang Ping. . .In addition to Leader Pelosi, the Members of the delegation are. . .Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), Budget Committee, Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Congressional-Executive Commission on the People’s Republic of China[17]. . .November 17, 2015, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27) and CAPAC Members Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-33), Rep. Grace Meng (NY-06), and Rep. Michael Honda (CA-17) held a press conference to call on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the recent cases against Chinese American scientists who were wrongfully suspected of economic espionage. They were joined by Sherry Chen, a U.S. citizen and employee of the National Weather Service in Ohio, as well as Dr. Xiaoxing Xi, a U.S. citizen and Interim Chair of the Physics Department at Temple University. Both Ms. Chen and Dr. Xi were arrested and indicted for various charges and suspected of economic espionage, only to have all charges against them later dropped. The press conference comes one day before a CAPAC meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.: Ted Lieu

[SuperLuminal]

What a disgraceful POS rag Scientific American turned into several decades ago...

They are upholding that tradition nicely...

[ifinnegan]

It’s easy. If they committed espionage prosecute them.

This argument seems to be for nullification of the crime.

[hanamizu]

“Accusations of espionage are often found to be erroneous and ungrounded in science...”

---

I wan’t aware that an accusation of espionage had to be ‘grounded in science’. I thought it was all about spying for another nation.

[sten]

China Gate
Cox Congressional report

and that was the mid 90s

it’s only got worse since then

[glorgau]

Oh yeah? I personally know a couple of chinese american (naturalized) “scientists” that bailed on America and cashed in tech to China. Real f*cking patriots.

If they forget to cross a “t” on their paperwork, burn ‘em.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Prosecuting Asian-American Scientists for Espionage Is a Shortsighted Strategy

Prosecuting Communist spies was so much easier when the Communists involved were white. Now we have the woke crowd with their race card to defend spies for foreign nations which happen to be non-white.