US-based scientists of Chinese origin still feel ‘chilling effects’ of Trump’s China Initiative

Study published by renowned international science journal questions whether formal rollback of Trump-era China Initiative has changed anything

Engineering, computer and life sciences researchers felt the most fear and sense of unease, poll of over 1,300 academics at US universities finds

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The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come as the US-China rivalry spills over from the geopolitical arena to science and technology. Photo: AP

Published: 6:00am, 6 Jul 2023

Over a third of Chinese-origin scientists in the US do not feel welcome in the country, and close to three-quarters do not feel safe as academic researchers, a survey published in a renowned international science journal has revealed.

The online poll, carried out after three years of the Trump-era China Initiative, also highlighted widespread fear among scientists of Chinese descent living the US.

Launched by the US Justice Department in late 2018 to probe scientists’ and academics’ potential links with the Chinese state, the initiative sparked concerns of racial bias and creating a culture of fear, and also triggered an exodus of Chinese-origin scholars.

It was dropped in February last year, with US national security officials declaring a more “threat-driven” approach.

“There are questions, however, regarding the extent to which the formal dropping of the ‘China Initiative’ name has been accompanied by substantive changes in the [US] government’s practices that address the chilling effects experienced by scientists of Chinese descent,” the report published in renowned international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) last week said.

At least 150 scientists had been investigated so far, with criminal charges laid against two dozen of them under the initiative, and “many more investigated in secret”, it said.

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