Made in China.

[Seenenough]

From Newsweek

"THE CHINA SPY SCANDAL THAT ENTANGLED HARVARD COULD HIT YALE AND MIT NEXT
BY MICHELE MCPHEE ON 2/29/20 AT 7:00 AM EST

The federal dragnet is so massive that investigators have given the case the code name "Lurking Giants."

This sweeping investigation into academia concerns not Hollywood celebrities who paid tens of thousands of dollars to secure college admission for their kids, but hundreds of millions of dollars that have poured into the country's most prestigious universities as gifts and contracts—unreported—largely from governments hostile to the U.S. The alleged theft of American taxpayer-funded military and scientific research would be a violation of the federal Higher Education Act. A recent Congressional report called the practice a threat to homeland security.

Federal law enforcement sources tell Newsweek that last month's arrest of Charles Lieber, the Chair of Harvard University's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, is just "the first domino to fall."

Federal investigations are targeting "multiple scientists and researchers" at leading universities who have allegedly been enriching their bank accounts by endangering intellectual property paid for by grant monies from the U.S. Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, several sources told Newsweek.

Lieber was one of those scientists whom federal prosecutors have identified as allegedly putting U.S. secrets at risk by double dealing: collecting $15 million in DOD and NIH grants for his work as a Harvard professor while simultaneously working as a Thousand Talents Program researcher for Beijing. Lieber was grilled about his work for the Chinese earlier this year by both federal investigators and Harvard officials and provided what the FBI called a "series of materially false, fictitious and fraudulent" statements.

Prosecutors say Lieber created a bank account in China to hide the $50,000 monthly stipend he was getting from the Chinese—a violation of his contract with the DOD and with Harvard—and the $158,000 he received for living expenses connected to his travel to the shadow lab he created at the Wuhan University of Technology.

Lieber, who grows bioengineered giant pumpkins in the yard of his home in Lexington, Mass., which is now part of a $1 million cash bail package he signed over to the court to secure his release from a federal lockup, is facing up to five years in prison. He and his wife Jennifer were ordered to surrender their passports. He has retained former Assistant United States Attorney Peter Levitt, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, to represent him. Levitt declined to comment.

Academic institutions are now anxiously waiting for the next shoes to drop. Other universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are securing legal teams to mitigate the expected fallout from what Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told Newsweek is "additional enforcement" aimed at rooting out academic espionage.

"Through the use of not only traditional intelligence officers, but academics, researchers, and other private citizens, China is engaged in a massive, long-term campaign to steal U.S. research and technology for its own uses," Lelling said. "[The Boston area] is an especially attractive target for this kind of exploitation."

Institutions are required to report any foreign gifts over $250,000 under the Higher Education Act. But in recent months ten schools -- Cornell University, Yale University, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, Texas A&M University, and Carnegie Mellon University -- were found to have taken more than $3.6 billion in foreign gifts, and have since filed the paperwork required under federal law, the Department of Education said. The DOE has ongoing investigations into monies that poured into Harvard and Yale.

In a Feb. 11 letter, Reed Rubinstein, the DOE's principal deputy general counsel, accused Yale President Peter Salovey in a letter of not reporting "a single foreign source gift or contract" from 2014 to 2017. In a letter to Harvard President Lawrence Bacow, Rubinstein said the Department of Education had information that his university "lacks appropriate institutional controls." In 2019 MIT, Cornell, Georgetown, Rutgers, and Texas A&M were also told by the DOE that they were being targeted for being in violation of disclosure law.

A Yale spokeswoman said the university's "oversight" did lead to a four-year gap in the mandated reporting of foreign funding, which the university says has since been rectified. "Yale takes very seriously the importance of ensuring that funding from foreign sources does not in any way compromise American interests, and it respects the Education Department's requirements about reporting of such funding," Karen Peart said in response to a Newsweek inquiry. Yale does not conduct classified research, Peart said. A Harvard spokesman said the university is reviewing the DOE letter and "preparing its response," but would not comment beyond that.

MIT's hiring of a Boston law firm came after one of its biology professors, Jianzhu Chen, was questioned by immigration officials at Boston's Logan Airport after returning from China in May. He said he was asked, "Do you work for a foreign government?" and grilled about his travel to China and a trip to Russia. After the incident Chen remarked, "That's no way to catch a spy," a source close to the researcher told Newsweek.

Weeks after Chen was questioned, MIT President Rafael Reif posted an open letter to the university community that raised questions about whether Chinese scientists were being unfairly targeted by federal investigators. "I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear."

Reif warned of "serious long-term costs to the nation and MIT."

MIT spokeswoman Sarah Donnelly would not comment to Newsweek on any ongoing federal investigations. She did tell Newsweek: "MIT takes its federal reporting obligations seriously. Over a year ago, MIT identified ways to improve its foreign gift and contract reporting. The Institute is committed to working constructively with federal officials."

The fear of academic espionage is nothing new. In 2018, the DOJ created a federal task force of U.S. Attorneys in Texas, New York, California and Alabama. Known as the "China Initiative," its goal is to root out "foreign agents seeking to influence the American public and policymakers." The primary goal is to identify Chinese military officers embedded in academia, such as two researchers who are currently under indictment in Boston.

On the same day that Lieber was arrested, Lelling's office unsealed a federal indictment against Yanqing Ye, a grad student at Boston University's Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering, charging her with visa fraud. Federal prosecutors said Ye hid her position as a top lieutenant of China's People's Liberation Army on immigration forms to facilitate her work conducting "numerous assignments for the PLA," including "assessing US military websites, researched US military projects, and compiled information for the PLA on two US persons with expertise in robotics and computer science." She was, prosecutors believe, an
embedded Chinese spy—a military intelligence officer moving within the Boston University system and funneling military secrets back to her PLA handlers.


More to follow

[Seenenough]

to follow

Ye is now being sought by the FBI. She is believed to have fled to China.

In December, another researcher whose visa was sponsored by Harvard University, Zaosong Zheng, was arrested at Boston's Logan Airport for allegedly stealing 21 vials of biological materials from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, wrapping them in his socks, and trying to smuggle them to China in his checked baggage. On Feb. 28, a federal judge issued a protective order for "sensitive government discovery materials" in Zheng's case. U.S .District Court Magistrate David Hennessy wrote in the ruling: "restrictions are necessary to protect the confidentiality of proprietary business information." Zheng has been held without bail since his arrest in December.

Meanwhile, law firms are fielding calls from concerned university heads and academics.

"Scientists who interact with China, especially in the Boston area and the academic world, are justifiably anxious as to where these ongoing probes will lead," said lawyer Brian Kelly, a partner at Nixon Peabody in Boston.

Kelly, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who was one of the prosecutors in the 2013 murder trial of Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, agreed that Lieber's arrest will not be the last.

"The government is intensifying these investigations into economic espionage cases," Kelly said, and his former colleagues are unlikely to "limit those probes to one particular school."

There are federal prosecutions of academics ongoing across the country.

A UCLA grad student studying electrical engineering was caught trying to smuggle apparatus for war missile guidance. A Chinese student at the Chicago Institute of Technology was charged with helping his country recruit new spies at his school. A chemistry professor at the University of Kansas was charged with duping the U.S. by taking grants for research he had already completed in China.

The arrests have raised concerns about ethnic targeting.

In late February, two Democratic lawmakers who work on civil rights issues, Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and California Congresswoman Judy Chu, sent a letter to the FBI demanding answers on whether Chinese researchers are being ethnically victimized. They wrote: "certainly there are authentic and legitimate cases of espionage that should be investigated," but they pointed to cases where Chinese researchers were arrested only to have the cases against them dropped."

Chu has been outspoken about the China Initiative since its inception, saying that the ongoing investigations have the potential "to paint all Chinese students, scholars, and employees en masse as potential spies for China."



Why does the media treat China as if they are the victim?

[ian16th]

A British Airways crew has flown 2.5million pieces of PPE equipment back to the UK from China in a 28-hour non-stop mercy mission.

It seems that BA have fitted probes for AAR!

And some special kit for loading in flight!

[Pontius Navigator]

I hope in typical supplier fashion it isn't 2.5 million left boots, right next week.

[AtomKraft]

Seenenough.
Kick the slitty-eyed cheats out of uni, and put them.on a slow boat home.
Be in no doubt, these twats are out for themselves only.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Seenenough.
Kick the slitty-eyed cheats out of uni, and put them.on a slow boat home.
Be in no doubt, these twats are out for themselves only.

Look at what that kind of policy did with respect to aerospace and the growth of Chinese aerospace and atomic power, when in fact Xuesen should have been allowed to remain in the USA and continue the good work he was doing. If you haven't heard of him, you should have. He was one of the co-founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory...

Qian Xuesen


Hsue Chu Tsien

Hsue-Chu Tsien married Yi-Ying Tsien (Née: Li; 李懿颖), also an MIT alumnus, and whose brothers were also MIT alumni and engineering professors at MIT. Two of Yi-Ying Tsien's brothers S. Y. Lee and Y. T. Li are members of the National Academy of Engineering. Y. T. Li's wife, T.D. Lin (林同端), is the sister of Tung-Yen Lin who was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the National Medal of Science in 1986 from President Ronald Reagan. Tung-Yen Lin's cousin Tung Hua Lin was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the Theodore von Karman Medal in 1988. Tung Hua Lin's son Robert Lin is a member of National Academy of Sciences.

Hsue-Chu Tsien had three sons, the oldest Richard W. Tsien is a famous neurobiologist at Stanford who's also member of both the United States National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine; the youngest - Roger Y. Tsien was a cell biologist who was the 2008 Nobel Chemistry Prize Laureate.

Treat good people like dogs and they will ultimately be inclined to crap in your MAGA cap...

[G-CPTN]

Unintended consequence:-

Upon his return, he helped lead the Chinese nuclear weapons program.
This effort ultimately led to China's first successful atomic bomb test and hydrogen bomb test, making China the fifth nuclear weapons state, and achieving the fastest fission-to-fusion development in history.

They should have thought about that!

[Seenenough]

Seenenough.
Kick the slitty-eyed cheats out of uni, and put them.on a slow boat home.
Be in no doubt, these twats are out for themselves only.

Some years ago our Company Chairman decided we needed to look towards China to do business.

Clem Sunter ,who is a well known South African Business Stratergist made a presentation to us and he made it very clear to us that it was likely that any person we were allowed to speak to in China or when they were visiting us ,would either be a Communist Party Member or a Military Officer masquerading as Businessman.

He also warned us that we should be very careful of them and not ever give them our full trust as they were notorious at making agrements but then ignoring the agreement terms.There is no such thing as a two way agreement with them.

When a Chinese Business person says yes it does not mean he agrees with you or is answering a question in the affirmative.All he is saying is that he has heard what you said.

After the presentation and at the following Board Meeting,the idea of looking to do business in China was moved to the no further action list.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Seenenough.
Kick the slitty-eyed cheats out of uni, and put them.on a slow boat home.
Be in no doubt, these twats are out for themselves only.

Some years ago our Company Chairman decided we needed to look towards China to do business.

Clem Sunter ,who is a well known South African Business Stratergist made a presentation to us and he made it very clear to us that it was likely that any person we were allowed to speak to in China or when they were visiting us ,would either be a Communist Party Member or a Military Officer masquerading as Businessman.

He also warned us that we should be very careful of them and not ever give them our full trust as they were notorious at making agrements but then ignoring the agreement terms.There is no such thing as a two way agreement with them.

When a Chinese Business person says yes it does not mean he agrees with you or is answering a question in the affirmative.All he is saying is that he has heard what you said.

After the presentation and at the following Board Meeting,the idea of looking to do business in China was moved to the no further action list.

And now South Africans have to live in and work in China, an even, God help us, the USA and Anglo is primarily listed on the LSE. Maybe if Mr Sunter , corporate and visionary hero that he is, had done a little but more to persuade the government in power in the 70's and 80 in SA to change tack slightly, things might be a tad better down South.

[AtomKraft]

Gentlemen.
I'm simply suggesting that we support our own countries economies by buying the stuff which WE produce!

This is what the Chinks already do. They steal our tech, manufacture it in China- then stop buying stuff from us.

They don't care whether we live or die.

The Chinese are poison. We cannot afford a war with them, but at least let's try not to support them!

Is it so hard to understand?

[Seenenough]

Professor -Why dont you pack up and move to China as you appear to be in awe of how the Chinese do things.They could really learn a lot from a
well educated,Little Moscow on the Hill , progressive scholar like you.

[G-CPTN]

They steal our tech, manufacture it in China- then stop buying stuff from us.

European heavy truck manufacturers wanted to be 'in' on the Chinese market (which is very large) so they entered into agreements to build in China (cheaper than building in Europe), which, of course gave the technology to the people building the product. Soon the locals decided to build their own versions.

[Seenenough]

They steal our tech, manufacture it in China- then stop buying stuff from us.

European heavy truck manufacturers wanted to be 'in' on the Chinese market (which is very large) so they entered into agreements to build in China (cheaper than building in Europe), which, of course gave the technology to the people building the product. Soon the locals decided to build their own versions.

It was all the rage,everyone had to be in on the Chinese boom and have now learned the hard way that the only winner in the end will be China.

They did it with Aircraft and Helicopters also.

[4mastacker]

I hope in typical supplier fashion it isn't 2.5 million left boots, right next week.

OI!!! It's boots, foot, left, without laces. FFS get it right.....err.......computer sez 'No'!!

[Pontius Navigator]

I remember Gauntlets, Flying, Leather, Left and ditto Right.

The gloves were made in different factories in different coloured leather.

[G-CPTN]

I remember Gauntlets, Flying, Leather, Left and ditto Right.

The gloves were made in different coloured leather.

Red and green?

[Pontius Navigator]

Logical but probably the wrong way round or upside down. No both shades of tan.

I think made in Northern Ireland.

[G-CPTN]

The town in which I grew up had been financed by wool and leather.
There were still wool-warehouses and the tannery when I was at school (I had to walk by every day, avoiding the rats), although the hand manufacture of the famous 'tans' (fine gloves, ladies for the wearing of) had ceased.
Pubs were the Skinners Arms and the Tanners Inn.

In 1823, the historian Andrew Wright recorded that 23,504 dozen pairs of gloves were produced annually by a workforce of 1,000 sewing women working at home, with 110 men and boys employed as leather dressers and cutters. By the late 19th Century the trade was virtually at an end.

[ian16th]

There was an upmarket glove factory in Worcester in the early 80's.

Dunno if its still operating, I know the Royal Worcester fine china place closed.

[BenThere]

In Mexico, a Chinese knockoff (BIAC) of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, which starts in the mid $30,000 USD range, is sold in the mid $20,000 USD range. The Chinese copy is not sold in the US and I've only seen it in Mexico. It looks almost exactly like the Wrangler, and I even took a look at it as an affordable Mexico car. You don't want too nice a car in Mexico - the roads can be rough, the heat and sun take a toll, traffic and parking can be tight which leads to dings, etc.

So I looked on-line for reviews of this China Wrangler. Generally the reviews asserted that this vehicle is no Jeep, generally unreliable and a piece of sh*t. In a nutshell, doesn't that reflect on virtually everything we get from China? Cheaper, yes, but quality, no. I ended up buying a Honda SUV. I can trust that.

I love the work of American craftsmen everywhere I can find it. And I'll pay a premium for it.

On the other hand I respect the general work ethic of the Chinese people I know, and the way they tend to raise their children. We can learn from each other, taking the best and leaving the rest.