US' scrutiny of ChineseAmerican scientists raises fears of ethnic profiling
ATLANTA - Two years ago, the director of the National Institutes of Health hailed genetic research from Emory University as a promising advance in the quest to treat Huntington's disease, a devastating neurological disorder.
The university fired them abruptly in May - 23 years after they arrived at the prestigious Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. It charged that the professors failed to fully disclose foreign sources of research funding and the extent of their work for institutions and universities in China. Both scientists are naturalised US citizens.
NIH has sent letters about potential violations to more than 60 research institutions within the past year, according to Michael Lauer, NIH deputy director for extramural research, questioning the conduct of"well over 100" scientists. "I do think that the academic sector needs to be much more sophisticated and thoughtful about how others may exploit the very open, collaborative research environment that we have in this country," Wray told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Now, some academics in the US worry about a repeat of the"Red Scare" over communist infiltration that Senator Joseph McCarthy fomented in the 1950s. "This is the tough part: Where do you draw the line between foreign influence and academic exchange?" he asked. The FBI alerted NIH to potential rule violations in 2016, Lauer said. Many cases arose through information from the FBI or internal NIH reviews, he said, and others are based on tips from whistleblowers. Universities have also notified NIH of problems they have discovered on their own.
Xiao-Jiang Li and Shihua Li both earned medical degrees from Jiangxi Medical College in China in 1982, according to their résumés. Xiao-Jiang Li earned a doctorate in pharmacology in 1991 from a school then named Oregon Health Sciences University. He was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University before joining Emory as an assistant professor in 1996. Shihua Li started at Emory that year as a senior research associate.
An attorney for Xiao-Jiang Li, Peter Zeidenberg, said Li was fired before being given a chance to respond to evidence against him."He was a tenured professor," Zeidenberg said."No due process." Denis Wirtz, vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins, lamented what he called a"palpable" level of anxiety among foreign-born scholars. Wirtz - himself a Belgian immigrant - said universities must reassure them that they are welcome, or else they will leave.
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