On January 20, 2022, federal prosecutors dismissed the government’s case against Gang Chen, a professor of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.  One year prior, Professor Chen had been indicted, under the China Initiative, in connection with his alleged omission of certain China-related affiliations in an application for a U.S. Department of Energy grant.  While the China Initiative was created in 2018 to prioritize countering economic espionage and theft of trade secrets in the United States, the cases investigated and prosecuted under it have, over time, increasingly focused on research integrity-related allegations against academics. Prosecutors in Professor Chen’s case now acknowledge that he did not unlawfully conceal information from the government. In a statement released by his lawyer following the dismissal of his case, Professor Chen said, “While I am relieved that my ordeal is over, I am mindful that this terribly misguided China Initiative continues to bring unwarranted fear to the academic community and other scientists still face charges.”

Following Professor Chen’s arrest in January 2021, more than 200 of his MIT faculty colleagues signed an open letter* challenging the notion that he sought to hide his ties to China, noting that his “scientific collaborations and broader connections to China are a matter of extensive disclosure and public record.”  The letter’s signatories highlighted several aspects of the published criminal complaint against Professor Chen that they considered “deeply flawed and misleading” and reflective of confusion about how research is conducted and funded.  MIT President Rafael Reif also issued a public letter that addressed misleading aspects of the criminal complaint against Professor Chen.  The university assumed the costs of his legal defense.

In an interview published in The New York Times on January 24, Professor Chen spoke about his ordeal, which included the public questioning of his loyalties by one of the prosecutors in his case:  “My reputation got ruined. My students, my post-docs, they changed their career.  They changed to other groups.  M.I.T., the country, the U.S., we lose.  I can’t calculate the loss.  That loss cannot be calculated." 

Read more* about Professor Chen’s case.

*This resource is not produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and may not represent the views of the institution.