US scientists keep ties with Chinese peers despite crackdown: researcher

Scientists in the United States have found ways to continue working with their peers in China despite a US government clampdown, according to a higher education researcher at the University of Arizona.

Jenny Lee, a professor of educational policy studies and practice at the university, said while many US-based researchers had given up ties with China out of fear of being prosecuted, many others had found alternative ways to maintain their collaborations, such as seeking non-federal grants, for which collaborators’ backgrounds are not scrutinised as strictly.

Much of the growth in US scientific output has been supported by China, Lee said, citing her own study published in the journal Higher Education in 2020. It found that in the five years leading up to the study, the number of US research publications would have declined without Chinese co-authorship, whereas China’s publication rate would have risen without the US.

In February, the US Justice Department announced the end of the China Initiative, a programme launched by the Trump administration to fight Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft. Critics said the programme was racially biased and led to prosecutorial overreach.