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.
"Hu Haizhou, who was studying underwater robotics, had permission to access code he allegedly stole… The development is a black eye for the Justice Department in its recent series of cases against Chinese military-linked researchers studying in the U.S."
"As the Trump administration continues to scrutinize all aspects of America’s relations with China, the University of North Texas has expelled 15 Chinese researchers who were funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council, a government organization."
"Scientists in China have told Nature that they are reluctant to travel to the United States for conferences or other research activities even when pandemic travel restrictions lift."
A July 8 SCMP article follows the plight of Lǐ Xiǎojiāng 李晓江, a tenured professor at Emory who was fired unceremoniously after Emory launched an investigation into his work with a research lab in China. In the article, Lǐ details how Emory’s failure to provide complete documentation to the FBI led to his being swept up in the DOJ’s ‘China Initiative.’
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on how the ill-considered, badly executed Trump administration “crackdown on scholars with ties to China has triggered a reverse brain drain.” Specifically, they focus on one researcher, Tán Wèihóng 谭蔚泓, who was hounded out of the U.S. last year, and became the leader of a successful project in China to develop a fast, easy test for COVID-19.
"From 2000 through 2009, clearance applicants with connections to China—such as family or financial relationships—were denied Pentagon clearances at the same rate as applicants with links to all other countries: 44%. But from 2010 through Oct. 31 this year, the China-related denial rate jumped to 61%, and the rate for all other countries fell to 34%," reported Bloomberg.
"The N.I.H. and the F.B.I. have begun a vast effort to root out scientists who they say are stealing biomedical research for other countries from institutions across the United States. Almost all of the incidents they uncovered and that are under investigation involve scientists of Chinese descent, including naturalized American citizens, allegedly stealing for China," reports the New York Times.
The FBI is “intimidating or harassing” at least three Chinese faculty members at the University of Cincinnati, according to Eric Palmer, the executive director of the local American Association of University Professors chapter.
Bloomberg tells the story of a nanotechnology startup at College of William & Mary that left for China “after federal agents hounded its founder, [Xin Zhao], for two years.” One lawyer told Bloomberg that “Chinese scientists and engineers are often detained and searched at U.S. airports these days while traveling to and from China, as family members watch in panic.”
