Professor was cleared of hiding ties to China: US university wants him back

Anming Hu was arrested in February 2020 under a Trump administration crackdown against academics suspected of concealing ties to Chinese institutions

The University of Tennessee has offered Hu a tenured engineering professor job, local media reported

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Anming Hu arrives in court in Knoxville on June 7, 2021. He was acquitted in September. Photo: Knoxville News Sentinel via AP

Published: 11:46am, 17 Oct 2021Updated: 11:45am, 17 Oct 2021

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has offered to reinstate a professor who was acquitted of federal charges that had accused him of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving Nasa research grants, a letter obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel says.

The newspaper reports that in the October 14 letter, provost and senior vice chancellor John Zomchick offered a tenured engineering professor job to Anming Hu, along with some back pay, and payment for an immigration lawyer.

Hu also was offered US$200,000 over three years to reestablish his research programme, and an explanation of the university’s support for his work visa as a naturalised Canadian citizen, according to the report.

Hu was arrested in February 2020, charged with wire fraud and making false statements. The judge declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in June. Prosecutors had filed a notice that they intended to retry the case, but the judge acquitted Hu last month.

The arrest was part of a broader Justice Department crackdown under then-president Donald Trump’s administration against university researchers suspected of concealing their ties to Chinese institutions.

Hu began working for UT Knoxville in 2013 and later was invited by another professor to help apply for a research grant from Nasa. That grant application was not successful, but two later applications were.