Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry/Chemical Biology Department charged by DOJ

1-28-20    The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China….

  According to court documents, since 2008, Dr. Lieber who has served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which specialized in the area of nanoscience, has received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD).  These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities.  "Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese Talent recruit plans that are designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.”

  Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at Wuhan University of Technology .  In return, Lieber was obligated to work for WUT “not less than nine months a year” by “declaring international cooperation projects, cultivating young teachers and Ph.D. students, organizing international conference[s], applying for patents and publishing articles in the name of” WUT….

   According to court documents, on April 20, 2019, federal officers interviewed Ye at Boston’s Logan International Airport.  During the interview it is alleged that

Ye Yanqing falsely claimed that she had minimal contact with two NUDT professors who were high-ranking PLA officers.   However, a search of Ye’s electronic devices demonstrated that at the direction of one NUDT professor, who was a PLA Colonel, Ye had accessed U.S. military websites, researched U.S. military projects and compiled information for the PLA on two U.S. scientists with expertise in robotics and computer science.  Furthermore, a review of a WeChat conversation revealed that Ye and the other PLA official from NUDT were collaborating on a research paper about a risk assessment model designed to decipher data for military applications.  During the interview Ye admitted that she held the rank of Lieutenant in the PLA and admitted she was a member of the CCP….Ye is currently in China.    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related

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31,161 by 12:01 a.m. 2-8-20 Beijing time    (4550/24600= 18.5% increase for 1 day)  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/coronavirus-latest-updates-china-death-toll-rises.html

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2-7-20  The Trump administration announced that it would commit up to $100 million in existing funds to help the World Health Organization, China and other infected countries fight the coronavirus outbreak.  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/coronavirus-latest-updates.html

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