The Two-Cosmium Legacy: Science & Politics in the 21st Century, and the Role of Nature in Economic Development
The fruit of their collaboration can be found today, although the two countries can hardly be called best friends forever. Some 3 million Chinese students have studied at universities in the United States since the agreement was brokered. In 2021, US universities awarded more than 8,000 doctorates to students from China, out of a total of around 25,000 international doctorates. Each country is the other’s biggest research partner, by a considerable margin.
There are, of course, always risks when researchers from different political systems collaborate. And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that big powers spy on each other, says Holdren. It’s always best to manage risks and always use rigorously tested scientific knowledge, as it’s all done with most applications of science in public affairs.
While acknowledging the benefits of closer ties, the document emphasizes the need for a “realpolitik approach” to future links. universities should make their own decisions regarding what is mutually beneficial and precautions should be taken to protect against possible harm.
There is climate change. After a period of silence that began in 2022, the two countries began talking again last year, thanks in no small measure to the long-standing relationship between their then climate envoys, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua. Last year, California made an agreement with China pledging to cut carbon emissions and transition away from using fossil fuels. Both Kerry and Zhenhua are moving on to new roles, and the legacy of their diplomatic efforts risks being undermined if scientists in the two nations cannot maintain their research ties.
Collaboration between the two countries on environmental protection includes projects to monitor and improve air and water quality, as well as watershed protection, and projects to reduce electronic waste — benefiting both countries in different ways. The US Environmental Protection Agency has called its relationship with China “one of its most significant”.
Researchers from China, the United States and Europe work together to understand the role of nature in human prosperity. Efforts to incorporate nature into the values of economies are underpinned by this evolving body of work.
The sabotage of science in the US: a Chinese American sociologist who is studying nuclear physics in the 2023 issue of Sociology
Another notable but little-known project aims to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation. China and the US have been working together to convert a type of nuclear research reactor, called a miniature neutron source reactor, so that it can’t be used with nuclear weapons because it won’t be enriched with weapons grade plutonium. China has supplied this type of reactor to a number of countries, including Iran, Nigeria and Pakistan. This cooperation has contributed to a safer world.
A Chinese American sociologist, Yu Xie, co-authored a study on disclosure of grant applications in the June 2023 issue of Sociology, which found that many high-profile cases were about disclosures on grant applications. The 26 DoJ cases in which Chen is involved, include researchers making false statements on grant applications. For example, Chen was charged with grant fraud for not disclosing his role as a grant reviewer for the National Natural Science Foundation of China when he applied for DoE funding, but was later acquitted.
“Chinese students now in the US feel that they don’t have a future in this country,” agrees Yiguang Ju, an aerospace engineer at Princeton University who moved to the United States after completing his PhD at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, in 1994. Two of his senior students took assistant professor positions to conduct plasma-modelling research at two separate universities in China. He said that anyone else in the US would not be able to do this research and that Chinese scholars enjoy a warmer reception outside of the US. At the Tokyo Institute of Technology, for example, roughly 55% of PhD students are from China.
Ju switched his scientific interests from propulsion to renewable energy in order to continue his research in the United States. In October, the DoE awarded him $5 million to lead the Energy Earthshot Research Center at Princeton, which is focused on clean hydrogen.
Chen has also switched his research focus to something less controversial. “In 2022, our semiconductor research was named a breakthrough of the year by Physics World,” says Chen. “Now, I work on water. He says there are no secrets in the water. There is a small group of five people led by Chen.
Lee says that the question is about the future, and whether or not there will be new relationships. “The US is continuing to sabotage itself.” She says that disruption of the flow of Chinese talent into the country and US–China research collaborations is at risk.
In 2021, in response to Chen’s arrest and the rise in perceived racial profiling of Chinese scientists, researchers formed the Asian-American Scholar Forum (AASF), a non-profit organization in New York City. Its aim is to protect the rights of Asian Americans and immigrants and promote academic freedom and equality.
Kai Li, a computer scientist at the Princeton University feared for his and his family’s safety when the China Initiative began. He scaled down his research and stopped seeking federal funds. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation funded Li and his company, Data Domain. Like Chen, Li has written recommendation letters for many students in other countries, given talks at Chinese universities and attended conferences in China.
The statement claimed that the National Security Division of the DoJ would be used in future investigations. This provides coordination between prosecutors and law enforcement, to better determine whether criminal prosecution is warranted. The National Security Division will be involved in investigations and prosecutions for cases involving academic integrity and research security. The FBI and other investigative agencies will be involved in the evaluations of cases on the basis of evidence of intent and materiality.
The department pointed out that the assistant attorney general made an update on its policies in February 2022, when Nature asked it to comment on the rationale for targeting scientists who have made errors. The statement acknowledged that researchers were concerned about it.
Before signing the document she crossed out things that would have to be questioned by her students. She says they don’t have the background to bring interrogation into a space for research and education.
Alongside increased border surveillance of their researchers, universities are also grappling with guidelines stemming from the 2022 US CHIPS and Science Act, which provides US$52.7 billion for domestic semiconductor research. If a research university receives federal funding it should certify that no students or researchers are participating in a foreign talent recruitment program. For example, MIT now asks researchers who receive Department of Energy (DoE) funding to certify that they have made reasonable efforts to determine that students or researchers are not participating in any talent-recruitment programmes involving China, Russia, North Korea or Iran.
He had 8 scientists from China in his group. We are doing research in mathematics, not applied science. His work underpins artificial intelligence and machine learning. The graduates of Peking University in Beijing, one of the top maths programs in the world, did not apply this year to join his group.
It’s not just Chinese scientists who are being detained. George Karniadakis, a Greek American mathematician at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who works with many Chinese scientists, has been stopped at the US border twice in the past year. On both occasions, his laptop and phone were confiscated but eventually returned. Three of his researchers and a student from China have been questioned at US airports when they returned from trips. They decided to leave the United States. The two other Chinese researchers were denied entry at the border.
Jenny Lee, who is a senior lecturer at the University of Arizona Center for the Study of Higher Education said that the chilling climate created by the China Initiative does not go away despite the Department of Justice officially ending the policy in February of 2022. Adding to the unease, in November 2023, the US House of Representatives appropriations committee, which oversees government expenditures, called on the DoJ to reinstate the initiative.
The terrifying experience led him to take his name out of joint publications. “I was considering changing my passport to become a US citizen before this incident, but now I’m just not sure,” he adds. They are treating us like spies.
Two years after the end of the controversial China Initiative, academics describe being treated like spies, a loss of talent and a chilling atmosphere that is stifling science.