Tracking paranoid rhetoric, visa restrictions, and the targeted policing of China-connected research, which combine to create a hostile atmosphere for Chinese people in the U.S.
“Faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone.”
—MIT President L. Rafael Reif, June 25, 2019.
Since early 2018, the American immigration and justice system has appeared to target Chinese students, and ethnically Chinese researchers, with paranoid rhetoric, visa restrictions, and targeted policing and politicization of China-connected research. Together, these three trends comprise the primary — but not only — components of the current atmosphere of suspicion and distrust in America of not just Beijing, but Chinese people as a whole.
This tool tracks rising Sinophobia in the U.S. Click on the filters to view different categories of Sinophobia-related developments, including Responses to Sinophobia, like the letter by the MIT President cited above.
Read about why SupChina launched this Sinophobia Tracker, in the words of our Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Goldkorn.
"In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Chen said he believed law-enforcement officials had miscalculated in bringing his case and some similar ones, in part because they are unfamiliar with how scientists work."
"After the experience of the last year — the early-morning arrest, the handcuffs and shackles, being described, in a news conference, as loyal to China — [Gang Chen] is uncertain if he will ever feel safe applying for U.S. government funds for research again."
An op-ed by Chén Gāng 陈刚, the MIT professor whom the U.S. Department of Justice dropped all charges against, a year after accusing him of failing to disclose ties to China. In his opinion piece, Chen describes his time under investigation as “a living hell,” calls the China Initiative “terribly misguided,” and says that there were “critical mistakes on the part of the FBI, federal prosecutors, and other federal investigative agencies” that need to be reviewed “by Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice to hold individuals accountable for this glaring misconduct.”
The U.S. Justice Department dropped its case against Chen Gang, the MIT nanotechnology professor whom it accused a year ago of failing to disclose China ties. The U.S. government “badly…misunderstood the details surrounding scientific and academic collaboration,” said Chen’s lawyer.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched the “China Initiative” two years ago to counter perceived “national security threats.” But the program came under fire from many civil society groups that were concerned with the FBI’s overreach, and especially with racial and ethnic profiling.
This week, the Sinica Podcast is an interview with the investigative reporters who published a scathing indictment of the China Initiative in the MIT Technology Review.
"The U.S. government’s China Initiative sought to protect national security. In the most comprehensive analysis of cases to date, MIT Technology Review reveals how far it has strayed from its goals."
“A chilling effect has taken hold on American campuses,” the New York Times reports in the aftermath of the prosecution and acquittal of nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hu told the NYT that the trial was “the darkest time of my life,” adding, “My basic human rights were invaded, my reputation was destroyed, my heart was deeply hurt, my family was hurt.” Scientists and university administrators say that the U.S. government targeting of ethnic Chinese scientists “has slowed research and contributed to a flow of talent out of the United States that may benefit Beijing.”
"The 'China Initiative' launched in late 2018 aimed to prevent U.S. technology theft by China but has since 'deviated significantly from its claimed mission,' according to the Sept. 8 letter, which was signed by 177 Stanford faculty members and made public by them on Monday [September 13]."
A federal judge last week acquitted nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, of all charges brought against him by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of its China Initiative.
The “Judgment of Acquittal ON ALL COUNTS (following June’s deadlocked jury) is short and sweet,” notes scholar Margaret K. Lewis: “The court’s accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order is a stinging rebuke of the government’s case and, more generally, a stain on the Justice Department’s China Initiative.”
The DOJ did not feel the sting, and said: “We respect the court’s decision, although we are disappointed with the result,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
See also our Sinophobia tracker for a recent history of U.S. government moves against ethnically Chinese scholars, scientists, and students, and a statement on Hu’s victory from advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
