New details emerge in US investigations of Chinese-American scientists over China links

A US congressional committee has released details of investigations into dozens of researchers, many of them Chinese-American, revealing the scale of government scrutiny sweeping academia over alleged links to China.

The documents – running to hundreds of pages – were released alongside a separate report by the House Select Committee on China. Titled “How to Stop China’s Theft of Taxpayer-Funded Research”, the report pushes back against arguments by universities and academic groups that tighter research security rules threaten academic freedom.

According to the committee, the records derive from investigations by the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General (NSF OIG), including details of previously unreported cases.

The NSF, which funds much of America’s basic research, declined to comment.

The files detail investigations into about 30 researchers over undisclosed Chinese payments, talent programme contracts and grants. It is unclear whether all the cases were pursued under the China Initiative – launched during US President Donald Trump’s 2017-2021 first term – though many date to the programme’s active years around that time.

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American universities routinely receive foreign grants and corporate sponsorships to support research and development. Department of Education data shows US universities have reported nearly US$70 billion in foreign gifts and contracts since 1986, including more than US$5.2 billion in 2025 alone.

Critics argue that those investigations, with the China Initiative being the most high-profile among them, selectively and unfairly targeted scholars of Chinese descent by criminalising these standard international academic partnerships.

The July 2024 suicide of Jane Wu, a Chinese-American neuroscientist, highlighted the most chilling impact of investigations against researchers suspected of having undisclosed ties to Beijing.

Wu, who worked at Northwestern University, came under scrutiny in a National Institutes of Health crackdown on undisclosed foreign ties that ran alongside the China Initiative. Her case is not among those in the NSF files.

“The records document cases involving undisclosed foreign appointments, compensation from [Chinese] institutions, participation in Chinese talent recruitment programmes, conflicts of commitment, and repeated failures to disclose information required by federal research funding agencies,” the House Select Committee on China said in a statement this week.

The cases had varying outcomes. Most ended without criminal charges, though some were referred for criminal investigation.

A few resulted in prosecutions and convictions, some of which were later overturned.

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Some researchers left their university posts or left the United States altogether.

In many cases, the NSF’s inspector general recommended suspending grants or barring future federal funding to the researchers involved.

The stated aim of the China Initiative, launched by the Department of Justice in 2018, is to counter alleged Chinese economic espionage and theft of US intellectual property and research.

Hundreds of researchers – many of them of Chinese descent – are believed to have been investigated under the programme before it was closed in 2022 by then president Joe Biden, after critics said it had failed to uncover espionage while subjecting Chinese-American researchers to heightened scrutiny.

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One of the cases not previously detailed publicly is that of Chu Xiang-qiang, a former Wayne State University physicist who is now an associate professor at City University of Hong Kong. NSF accused her of spending long stretches in China and holding additional employment there that she had not disclosed.

A since-withdrawn American Physical Society abstract listed her as affiliated with the graduate school of the Sichuan-headquartered China Academy of Engineering Physics, which conducts Chinese nuclear weapons research.

Chu rejected the NSF allegations in an emailed response to the South China Morning Post, saying she had always disclosed employment held in China.

She also insisted that her move to Hong Kong “was a personal decision and had nothing to do with [the investigation]”.

“I joined the Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics [in Beijing] as a full-time professor, which was fully disclosed during the years I worked there,” she wrote.

“I resigned from the US university and returned the unused portion of the funding to NSF before any action was taken to suspend it. I have no knowledge of whether NSF barred me from serving as a reviewer or panellist for three years.”

The NSF’s inspector general recommended in April 2019 that Chu be barred from serving as a reviewer or panellist for three years.

The publication of the investigation comes as House committee chairman John Moolenaar pushes for tighter research security rules and the passage of the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries Act.

The proposed legislation would bar federally funded researchers from collaborating with entities on US government restricted lists, permitting exceptions only under rare, case-by-case waivers.

A 2021 survey by Chinese-American advocacy group the Committee of 100 and the University of Arizona found that 42.2 per cent of scientists of Chinese descent felt racially profiled by the US government.

Haipei Shue, president of the non-profit organisation United Chinese Americans and an outspoken civil rights activist, said the newly released documents immediately brought back “troubled memories” of the early days of the China Initiative.

“Though the initiative was shut down, the fallout has been immense,” he said. “It eroded trust by causing Chinese-Americans to feel their patriotism was questioned, chilled global scientific collaboration, and triggered academic ‘decoupling’ between the US and China.”

If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.