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China ISS Government NASA The Courts

Texas A&M Professor Accused of Secretly Collaborating With China Amid NASA Work (cnbc.com) 52

CNBC reports: A Texas A&M professor was charged with conspiracy, making false statements and wire fraud on allegations that he was secretly collaborating with the Chinese government while conducting research for NASA, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday...

"Once again, we have witnessed the criminal consequences that can arise from undisclosed participation in the Chinese government's talent program," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will continue seeking to bring participation in these talent programs to light and to expose the exploitation of our nation and our prized research institutions," he added. The DOJ has previously described China's Thousand Talents Plan as a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to "attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China's scientific development, economic prosperity and national security." Through this program, the Chinese government would "often reward individuals for stealing proprietary information," the DOJ said.

"While 1.4 million foreign researchers and academics are here in the U.S. for the right reasons, the Chinese Talents Program exploits our open and free universities," said Ryan Patrick, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, adding that ties to the Chinese government must be disclosed.

The criminal complaint accuses the professor of trying to "leverage NASA grant resources to further the research of Chinese institutions" and "gain access to the unique resources of the International Space Station."
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Texas A&M Professor Accused of Secretly Collaborating With China Amid NASA Work

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  • Treason (Score:1, Insightful)

    by DewDude ( 537374 )
    Consider it treason, execute him, send a message that those that work with the commies will no longer be working with anyone.
    • What do you think will happen to the US counterpart in China?
      • What do you think will happen to the US counterpart in China?

        Everyone's eagerly waiting for him to find information worth stealing.

        Needless to say, it's not looking good.

    • It's pretty sad when the commies offer more money than you do. It means you're very cheap.

    • by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @06:30PM (#60454062) Homepage

      But Paul Manafort was a good guy right?

    • Re:Treason (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @08:00PM (#60454200) Homepage
      Treason has an extremely narrow definition. From Article 3, Section III of the https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/article-iii/clauses/39 [constitutioncenter.org]:

      Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

      Since we engage in active trade with China and have regular diplomatic relations with China, arguing that China is an enemy for this purpose would be extremely difficult. Even at the height of the Cold War, Soviet spies were convicted of espionage for this reason. The Founders had seen what an overly broad notion of treason did, and we're very careful to make sure that treason was not an offense that could be thrown around by the government unless it was absolutely justified. They'll get the same treatment as other spies: charged with various espionage offenses. Such offenses due in principle carry a death penalty also, but we almost never use it. Among other reasons, it makes it easier to do exchanges later to get our own spies back from other countries when they are caught. And people are more likely to cooperate and turn friends in if they don't think that it will mean their friends are going to be executed.

    • Re:Treason (Score:5, Insightful)

      by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @08:34PM (#60454266)

      Consider it treason, execute him, send a message that those that work with the commies will no longer be working with anyone.

      Uhh, the guy is a Chinese national. If he's a traitor, by definition he could only be a traitor to China.

    • Why was this modded as insightful? It's not treason, which has a specific definition in the constitution. It is generally interpreted pretty narrowly, which is a good thing. We don't want our courts just whimsically considering a given act as treason, that is how repressive governments behave. Although, I'm beginning to think many of my fellow citizens DO want that.

      If you'd actually like to learn about treason according to the U.S. constitution, I recommend starting here: https://constitutioncenter.org... [constitutioncenter.org]

      Or

    • Yo, senator McCarthy, good to see your ugly visage again, thought you drunk yourself to death back in '57.

    • treason with death by firing squad & an UCMJ trail.

      • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Um, no. It's not treason, and how do you figure he'd fall under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ? I don't think it covers anyone not in the military.

        • an 1 man draft can get it under the under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ

          • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            an 1 man draft can get it under the under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ

            WTF is a 1 man draft? Are you off your meds?

  • A&M (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What's A&M?

    • Re:A&M (Score:4, Informative)

      by DewDude ( 537374 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @04:54PM (#60453822) Homepage
      Agricultural and Mechanical, originally, but today the letters no longer explicitly stand for anything. When Texas A&M was opened on Oct. 4, 1876 as the state's first public institution of higher education, it was called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, or "A&M" for short.
      • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @05:32PM (#60453912) Journal

        Expanding on that, while it's no longer called Agriculture & Mechanical, that emphasis lives on. Texas A&M is strong on engineering (from "mechanical") and we'll - agriculture, including having the top veterinary science school in the country.

        If a Texan wants to major in art history and gender studies, they go to UT, not Texas A&M.

        If you want to DO stuff, create stuff, as a career A&M is a good place for you; if you want to spend your life writing what you think about all the people who do, UT is a better fit.

        • Hah! Gig ‘em!

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          UT has the best computer science, business, and law programs in Texas. Oh, and

          https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/ics/about-wgst-studies/

          • Yes, they are both actually large universities, offering the full range.

            *And* UT is *more* liberal arts. A&M is more getting your hands dirty, doing.

            Kinda like you'll feel MORE ar home in Austin (home of UT) or San Francisco if you're a total pothead than you will in College Station (A&M) or Knoxville. A cowboy will feel more at home in College Station or Knoxville.

          • by guruevi ( 827432 )

            You just contradicted yourself.

          • >> If you want to DO stuff, create stuff, as a career A&M is a good place for you; if you want to spend your life writing what you think about all the people who do, UT is a better fit.

            > UT has the best ... business, and law programs in Texas

            So lawyers:
            A) Make things, get stuff done
            B) Write things about people who get do things

            So MBAs:
            A) Make things, get stuff done
            B) Write memos ansld things about people getting stuff done

            You've given good examples there, examples of UT grads write stuff, about

    • Re:A&M (Score:4, Funny)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @05:20PM (#60453894)
      Anal and Manual (definition from webster)
    • Re:A&M (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @05:32PM (#60453916)

      Texas A&M University is “A&M”. It’s located in College Station, Texas, and with about 70K students attending the campus as of last year, its enrollment is larger than any other public university in the nation. Also worth noting, as the biggest research institution in the vicinity of Houston, there’s a lot of aerospace research there.

  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @09:17PM (#60454322)
    "the Chinese Talents Program exploits our open and free universities"

    If they were open and free, they wouldn't be expected to keep secrets. That's what "open" means.

    If we want universities to be not about creating and sharing knowledge, but instead for doing military and proprietary commercial research, fine. But don't call them "open and free."

    • Unfortunate choice of words.

      As someone who's conducted both government-sponsored and private-sector-sponsored university research, "open" and "free" are not so black and white in top research universities.

      US universities are not charities for the world. They are meant to ensure US dominance through corporate and government research partnerships. The openness and freeness is there to a degree, and has to do with the sharing of certain research results (even with China).

      That freedom is not absolute
  • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @11:01PM (#60454498)
    Wait and see. Innocent until proven guilty. I'm no fan of China, but our intelligence services have gotten this sort of thing VERY BADLY WRONG. Just a few years ago, the DOJ accused a really prominent physicist named Xi Xiaoxing of being a Chinese spy within American academia. They hit him with every charge in the book, trotted him out in front of the world to shame him, the entire works. Ruined his career.

    Only then did the investigators get serious about doing any..... actual investigation. It quickly became OBVIOUS that he was totally innocent. The press coverage stopped and the government went silent about it. It was absolutely obvious that the US had simply failed to do any level of due diligence. The incompetence on the DOJ side was staggering. He's suing and the case is currently in court.

    I'm sure there are real Chinese spies within academia, but let's go about it carefully. No second McCarthy era, please.
  • What a joke America is yet again.
    Look at what it could have become, without the nutters ruining the country again, and blaming it on some foreign scsoegoats, to distract from themselves.

    • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      You speak as though you know the case is BS. You don't. None of us do, and we'll only know when the evidence makes it's way out.

  • ... coincidental with the RNC ??? Poor man prolly sacrificed on behalf of trump's anti china policy and his reelection race.

  • How is this different from what the US does all over the world, including China? And what is really going on? Did he secretly sell restricted information, or wasn't it a public research... It's not like US citizens go to a university in like the Netherlands, do research there on dutch grants but take the info and give it to US companies/agencies...

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

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