The FBI has arrested the chair of Harvard University’s chemistry department and two people residing near Boston and has charged them with aiding China in spying and the theft of technology. The professor, Charles Lieber, lied to Defense Department investigators when they questioned him in April 2018. Lieber claimed that he had never been asked to work for the Thousand Talents Plan.
The Thousand Talents Plan is a project the Chinese uses to lure leading academics and scientists to work in China. Although Lieber denied the accusations, he was being paid $50,000 a month to work with the Wuhan Institute of Technology in China. On top of that he was given living allowances and grants to be used for research.
Lieber was under contract with the Thousand Oak Plan from 2021 to 2017. Part of the agreement for receiving federal grants from the United States government, you must reveal all of your connections to foreign governments. This he did not do. If he had the grants would have been denied.
Separately, the Justice Department charged Yanqing Ye, a student in Boston University’s departments of physics, chemistry and biomedical engineering, with lying on her visa application and failing to disclose that she was a lieutenant in China’s People’s Liberation Army. FBI agents found evidence that she was carrying out tasks for her military superiors, such as conducting research, assessing U.S. military websites and sending U.S. documents to China, the Justice Department said.
Ye, 29, was charged with visa fraud, making false statements and acting as an agent of a foreign government. She is in China.
The third case announced Tuesday was against Zaosong Zheng, who worked as a cancer researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston from 2018 to 2019. Zheng is accused of trying to smuggle 21 vials of biological research material back to China in a sock in his luggage. When he was stopped at the airport and questioned about the vials, he allegedly told investigators that he wanted to use them to conduct research in China.
Zheng, 30, was arrested last month on charges of smuggling and making false statements.
Zheng’s lawyer, Inga Bernstein, said: “As far as we know and can tell, the charges against our client are entirely unrelated to other prosecutions being pursued by the U.S. attorney’s office. On behalf of our client, we are looking forward to a jury trial so our client can be found not guilty.”