Neurobiologist Ye Bing says his return to China is not spurred by Michigan campus tragedy

Neurobiologist Ye Bing is returning to China after a long period in the United States, but he says his move is not linked to the suicide of another Chinese scholar at the same university or US policy under the Trump administration.

Ye said his decision to join Nanjing University and leave the University of Michigan was not influenced by the death of Chinese scholar Wang Danhao on the same campus six months earlier – a day after Wang was interviewed by US Homeland Security officers.

“This is a career choice and has no connection to the events mentioned in your email or the national policies [of the Trump administration],” Ye said in an email on Tuesday.

“I have indeed joined my alma mater, Nanjing University, to participate in the development of its school of life sciences.”