Panic over US scrutiny of science talent programme

China’s prestigious ‘Thousand Talents’ programme to lure top scientists from abroad has been widely promoted within the country as a major success story in fuelling China’s global scientific rise. However, it is now adopting a more low-key approach as it is subject to increased United States scrutiny amid worsening US-China relations.

Within China, mentions of the flagship programme are being deleted in social media and visible promotions abroad are being dramatically scaled back, sources have said.

The programme has brought around 7,000 top-level scientists and researchers to China over the 10 years since its inception, the majority of them from the United States, on attractive financial and benefits packages.

But it has been portrayed by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) as a means by which China transfers often sensitive technology from the US by directly hiring those who worked on programmes attractive to China. Unclassified NIC analysis produced in April pointed to the programme as having an unadvertised aim “to facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how" to China.

Screenshots circulating among academic groups in China include an urgent notice from China’s ministry of education requesting that universities delete information about the Thousand Talents programme from their websites.

Other non-ministry circulars dated early October stressed that the identity and security of overseas talents should be protected by universities and other recruiting organisations.

Links to lists of members of the Thousand Talents programme on official Chinese and English-language websites no longer work, and individual Thousand Talents scholars’ pages have also been removed.

Some associates of the Thousand Talents programme spend time at a Chinese university while retaining their positions in the US, which has caused concern among US government agencies about the nature of their relationship with China in the current stoked-up climate of suspicions of Chinese espionage.

Panic among Thousand Talents associates

This month unsubstantiated claims began circulating among Chinese scholars in the US that law enforcement authorities in the US had begun to investigate some academics associated with the programme. In both China and the US there have been suggestions the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may have put together a ‘blacklist’ of individuals with the intention of asking institutions to remove them from their posts. The FBI will not comment on the existence of a blacklist.

Separately, the Pentagon is investigating research partnerships between US universities and Chinese companies.

One Chinese-American scholar told University World News on condition of anonymity that “there is panic among many associates of the [Thousand Talents] programme because, particularly in China, there are a lot of rumours that we will be specifically targeted by the US. No one knows if it is true or not, but we are now being quiet about our connection with the programme.”

Academics outside the US have also been warned that association with the programme could affect them if they wish to participate in research collaboration or work in the US.

Around 33 Taiwanese academics and scientists have been recruited under the programme, according to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council which handles relations with Beijing. Chang Kuo-Cheng, a professor at Taipei Medical University, was quoted by local Taiwan newspapers as saying that academics who join the Thousand Talents programme could see their career development restricted if they participate in science collaboration projects with the US.

Academics in Hong Kong who have been recruited to the programme are also beginning to voice concerns, including about three-way collaborations with the US.

Within China the focus on scientists generally and the Thousand Talents programme more specifically “is perceived as an American effort of containment of China – containing their progress, in science and technology, business and manufacturing, which is not good for US-China relations”, said Gerard Postiglione, emeritus professor at the University of Hong Kong.

“It is obviously an overly-ambitious intention to be investigating Chinese scholars in the US, the damage of which will potentially be long lasting,” said Postiglione, who knows Thousand Talents participants at his university. “After 40 years of goodwill and academic exchanges between China and the US, the Trump administration is squandering much of it, and we don’t know how far they will go.”

What will universities do?

“But the implementation is important,” Postiglione added. “I don’t think a university in the US is going to fire someone associated with the Thousand Talents programme.”

Nonetheless, it could affect universities in other ways. “Is it going to affect federal funding if you still have that person on your faculty?” he noted.

In early September Texas Tech University (TTU) Vice-President for Research Joseph Heppert advised faculty in a widely publicised letter “to be very circumspect about participation in Talent programs.”

“The US Congress is extremely concerned by this development and has begun to view the [Thousand Talents programme] as part of a broader strategy to build technological superiority,” according to the letter.

Heppert added, “to complicate matters, the State Department and the FBI believe elements of the Thousand Talents Program are closely allied to the Chinese military.”

The letter also revealed that the university cancelled an offer to host a visiting scholar from a Chinese university, as a reciprocal move after the scholar applied to the Thousand Talents programme. He appeared to want to access sensitive research programmes.

“We are aware of other TTU faculty being targeted for participation in these programmes. Congress is hearing similar examples from across the country. Legislation currently under consideration in Washington would permanently bar individuals who have participated in Chinese, Russian or Iranian Talent programs from receiving any federal grant funding from the US Department of Defense. There is some concern this could be broadened to include other federal granting agencies.”

Houston focus

Currently around 2,629 top-flight academics and researchers are in China under the Thousand Talents programme, according to the NIC analysis. Around 44% specialise in medical and life sciences, 22% in applied industrial technologies, 8% in computer sciences, 6% in aviation and aerospace and 6% in astronomy. Others are specialists in economics, finance and mathematics.

In August the FBI held an unusual gathering of more than 100 university officials in Texas on preventing intellectual property and research theft – a move which is expected to be replicated throughout the country, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

The FBI provided academic and research leaders in Houston – a major research and technology hub – with “classified information about direct threats, both in Houston and nationally”, though specific countries were not mentioned.

The fears of Thousand Talents associates ratcheted up earlier this month when Keping Xie, a gastroenterology professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was being investigated by US law enforcement for possible involvement in espionage. Xie was part of the Thousand Talents programme and was investigated by Houston police for allegedly giving advanced research from the MD Anderson Cancer Center to the Chinese government, according to court documents.

Xie was apparently charged with ‘tampering with a government record’, although his lawyer Nathan Mays told NBC news he was unaware of any kind of espionage charges against Xie, and said the professor vehemently denies separate child pornography charges.

Chinese official media have said the Thousand Talents programme is intended to recruit world-class scientists, and not to influence foreign countries.

In May, the Trump administration announced that the validity of visas issued to Chinese graduate students studying in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics would be shortened to only one year.

“One thing that seems pretty certain is that more and more Chinese scholars in the US, particularly in the STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields, are beginning to feel that they are under suspicion. That is not is not a very comfortable position to be in and might convince them to go to Europe or elsewhere,” said Postiglione.