FBI Director Christopher Wray | FBI role in investigations of Chinese-American faculty #PolicyTalks
Channel: Ford School of Public Policy
Date: 2022-12-03

Question from Ann Chih Lin, associate professor of public policy and director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan:

Several cases against Chinese scientists have gone to federal court in the last two years, only to have juries find the defendants not guilty, or federal judges dismiss many of the charges.  Other ongoing cases have been dropped by prosecutors before going to trial.  Advocates explain these failures to convict by saying that the evidence against these university faculty was never strong to begin with.  They accuse the FBI of presuming that routine academic engagement with scientific colleagues in China is evidence of a crime, and of mistaking university-sponsored collaborations and grants for money that is illicitly going into scientists' pockets.  Presumably you would disagree.  What are advocates misunderstanding about these cases?  Do you think the evidence has been stronger than juries and judges have found?

A Policy Talks @ the Ford School and Josh Rosenthal Memorial Lecture event.