US Justice Department ends ‘China Initiative’ amid concerns over racial bias and a culture of fear
- The shift represents a move from the Trump-era programme targeting Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and will become more ‘threat-driven’
- ‘Perception of bias undermines our efforts, and makes it harder for us to earn the trust of the communities that we’re trying to serve’
The US Justice Department on Wednesday announced the end of the China Initiative, a programme launched by the Trump administration to fight Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft but which critics said was racially biased and led to prosecutorial overreach.
The move is a recognition that the focus on China was too limited, said Matt Olsen, the assistant attorney general for the agency’s National Security Division, adding that a new approach would focus on Russia, Iran and North Korea as well as China and would be “threat-driven”.
“We are no longer going to have a China Initiative,” Olsen said, citing growing criticism from members of Congress. “But in particular, it came from the scientific and academic community, as well as from the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community.”
Olsen said his department’s months-long review found no evidence that federal prosecutors lowered their standards for people with ties to China or that the programme discouraged talented scientists from studying and doing research in the US.
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But even a widespread belief that the department has been unfair exacts a price, he added. “Perception of that type of bias undermines our efforts, and makes it harder for us to earn the trust of the communities that we’re trying to serve,” he said.