Harvard academic charged with lying about China links

A Harvard University professor and two other Chinese nationals were federally indicted in three separate cases for allegedly lying to the United States about their involvement with China’s government, the US attorney for the district of Massachusetts announced last Tuesday, write Veronica Stracqualursi and Sheena Jones for CNN.

Federal authorities told reporters the cases highlighted the “ongoing threat” posed by China using “non-traditional collectors” like academics and researchers to steal American research and technology.

Dr Charles Lieber (60), who is the chair of Harvard's chemistry and chemical biology department, is accused of lying about working with several Chinese organisations, where he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from Chinese entities, US Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a news conference. In a separate indictment Yanqing Ye, a 29-year-old Chinese national, was charged with visa fraud, making false statements, conspiracy and being an unregistered agent. Cancer researcher, Zaosong Zheng, was indicted for trying to smuggle 21 vials of biological material out of the US to China and lying about it to federal investigators, Lelling said.
Full report on the CNN site