The United States government has separately arrested two China-related scientists found to have committed fraudulent misrepresentations.
Li Xiao-Jiang, who previously worked as a neuroscientist at Emory University, has been charged with deceiving American authorities for simultaneously working in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a Chinese institution.
Reports said that Li has failed to fully disclose the extent of her work by agreeing to perform research duties at Emory’s medical school when, in fact, he was still employed as a team leader at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS’s) Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology.
According to the complaint, Li has often fled America and was presumed to work at the Chinese institute. It was also found that he has received around $92,000 wage from three NIH grants in 2015 while simultaneously being paid $80,000 by CAS in 2015 and 2016.
The scientist is charged for swindling salary and peripheral profits from the US government.
Meanwhile, Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology chair Charles Lieber, has been sued for making false and deceiving claims to the U.S. Defense Department.
Lieber was accused of lying about his involvement in a Chinese government program dubbed “Thousand Talents Plan” which was established to recruit top experts in scientific research, innovation, and entrepreneurship from foreign countries.
U.S. officials have earlier warned that this Chinese program could be detrimental to a wide range of America’s scientific endeavors.
The Justice Department found out that the scientist has also signed a contract with China’s Wuhan University of Technology without the knowledge of Harvard.
“Lieber was also awarded more than $1.5 million by WUT and the Chinese government to establish a research lab and conduct research at WUT,” the complaint stated.
American authorities regarded Lieber’s case as an illustration of the risks of Chinese economic espionage.
