FBI McCarthyism Indicts Harvard Professor for ‘Hiding’ Ties to China’s Thousand Talents Program

June 10, 2020 (EIRNS)—Harvard University Prof. Charles Lieber was indicted yesterday on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his ties to China, Politico reported June 9. Although the formal indictment was announced yesterday, the professor who was Chemistry Department chair, had been arrested on Jan. 28, “on charges of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program,” wrote the Justice Department, and ties to the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), while working at Harvard. If convicted, he could serve five years in prison.

This is another example of the Justice Department/FBI terror campaign against Chinese or American academics or scientists who dare to cooperate or maintain ties with Chinese educational or scientific institutions, under the guise of combatting espionage or theft of intellectual property. According to Politico, when Lieber was asked about his relationship with WUT, he lied, and then lied again causing Harvard to share bad information with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about his affiliation. Lieber had received both NIH and Defense Department funding.

Regardless of what he said, or didn’t say, to the DOJ, the case has little to do with lying. In its press release announcing the charges against Lieber, the DOJ claimed that the Thousand Talents Program and others like it, “reward individuals for stealing proprietary information and exist to further China’s national security.” This and other prosecutions are being carried out through the DOJ’s “China Initiative,” whose official purpose is to counter Chinese espionage in the U.S., but which is functioning as a McCarthyite terror campaign against anyone connected to China.

Lieber’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, told Politico that Lieber “has dedicated his life to science and to his students. Not money, not fame, just his science and his students. He is the victim in the case, not the perpetrator.” Lieber, he continued, is “also a fighter—he always has been—so we’re not taking this lying down. We’re fighting back.”

Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney overseeing Lieber’s prosecution, revealed the McCarthyite nature of DOJ program. “You get leads sometimes from the universities themselves, if they have a good working relationship with us and the FBI. A big component of the China Initiative is outreach.” The head of the DOJ’s National Security Division, John Demers, reports that DOJ headquarters has encouraged all 94 U.S. Attorneys offices to bring China-related cases.