How false Statement Almost cost former university professor his Freedom
2023.01.19 07:28
How false Statement Almost cost former university professor his Freedom
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – In the latest setback for a Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice crackdown on Chinese influence within American academia, a former University of Kansas professor avoided prison on Wednesday for lying about his work in China.
Even though U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson had thrown out the majority of Feng “Franklin” Tao’s trial conviction for concealing work he did in China, the prosecution had requested a sentence of two and a half years in prison for him.
Instead, Robinson gave Tao a sentence of time served, claiming that the chemical engineering professor conducted research that was “freely shared in the scientific community” and that there was no evidence that he shared proprietary information with anyone in China.
Robinson stated, “This is not an espionage case.” It’s possible that’s what the Department of Justice thought was happening, but it wasn’t.”
“Immensely relieved by the sentence,” said Tao’s attorney, Peter Zeidenberg.
He stated that Tao will file an appeal against his remaining false statement conviction for not disclosing his affiliation with a Chinese university on a form submitted to the University of Kansas.
As part of the “China Initiative,” which was launched in 2018 during the time of former Republican President Donald Trump and aimed to combat suspected Chinese economic espionage and research theft, Tao, who was indicted in 2019, was one of approximately two dozen academics who were charged.
The China Initiative was ended by the Justice Department in February 2022 under Democratic President Joe Biden, despite the department stating that it would continue to pursue cases regarding China’s threats to national security. This decision came in response to a number of failed prosecutions and criticism that it chilled research and fueled bias against Asians.
Prosecutors claim that Tao, who worked on projects related to renewable energy, concealed his affiliation with Fuzhou University in China from the University of Kansas and two federal agencies that gave the professor’s research grants.
He was found guilty of four of the eight charges against him by a jury in April. Due to a lack of evidence, Robinson overturned three wire fraud convictions in September.
