Harvard professor, Charles Lieber, found guilty of hiding ties to China

Charles Lieber, a Harvard University Professor, charged with hiding his connections to a Chinese-run recruitment program, was on Tuesday (December 21) found guilty on all counts. The 62-year-old former chair of Harvard's department of chemistry and chemical biology had earlier pleaded not guilty to two counts of making false statements, two counts of filing tax returns, and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank in China.

Before pronouncing the verdict after five days of testimony in Boston federal court, the jury spent two hours and 45 minutes in deliberation. 

In Lieber's defence, his attorney Marc Mukasey argued that the prosecutors did not have proof of the charges and stated that the investigating officers did not keep any record of their interviews with the Harvard professor prior to his arrest.

Mukasey also argued that the prosecution would not be able to prove that Charles Lieber acted intentionally or willfully or had made any false statements. The defence attorney stressed that the Harvard professor was not charged with illegally transferring any proprietory information or technology to China.

Meanwhile, the prosecution argued that Charles Lieber, who was arrested in January 2020, willingly hid his involvement in China's Thousand Talents Plan to protect his career and reputation. China's Thousand Talents Plan was designed to recruit people who possessed knowledge of foreign technology and China's intellectual property.

According to the prosecutors, Charles Lieber denied involvement during inquiries from US authorities, including the National Institutes of Health that had reportedly provided the Harvard professor with millions of dollars in research funding.

The prosecutors also claimed that Charles Lieber also concealed his income from the Chinese program, which included $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology and more than $1.5 million in grants. The prosecutors added that in exchange, Lieber published articles, organised international conferences and also applied for patents on behalf of the Chinese university.

The US Department of Justice launched the so-called 'China Initiative' to curb economic espionage from China in 2018. This initiative received flak and criticism as it allegedly harms academic research and amounts to racial profiling of researchers from China. Several faculty members across prominent universities signed letters to US Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding him to end the initiative.

Claiming that the initiative compromises United States' competitiveness in research and technology, academics added that it has also led to a spiralling effect on the recruitment of foreign scholars apart from targeting researchers of Chinese origin. Charles Lieber has been on paid administrative leave from Harvard University since being arrested in January 2020.