Three more US universities pledge support for Chinese-American scientists caught in growing web of suspicion
- ‘Researchers, particularly immigrants and visitors from China, have been the target of aggressive investigations and public sanctions,’ a chancellor writes
- Pitt, Caltech and Johns Hopkins join Yale, MIT and others in condemning ‘government mistrust’
Three more American universities have issued statements in support of scholars and researchers of Chinese ethnicity, a group that has been increasingly targeted over suspicions of spying for Beijing.
The University of Pittsburgh, California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University recently joined 12 other leading schools – including Yale, Columbia and Stanford – to issue statements supporting Chinese-American scientists.
The pledges come amid fears that the group is being unfairly singled out and is a victim of the feud between Beijing and Washington that has now extended to trade, economic issues, technology and national security.
China’s rising technological ambitions have led to US concerns that Beijing is attempting to achieve its goals partly by stealing American technology.
The White House has cited estimates that Chinese theft of American intellectual property costs the US economy up to US$600 billion each year.
