US professor Franklin Tao avoids prison in blow to Donald Trump-era China-related investigation
- Prosecutors had sought a jail term for the Kansas academic even after a judge threw out most of his trial conviction for concealing work he did in China
- Tao was among about 2 dozen academics charged as part of the now-defunct ‘China Initiative’, aimed at countering economic espionage and research theft
A University of Kansas professor avoided prison on Wednesday for making a false statement related to work he was doing in China in the latest setback for a Trump-era US Department of Justice crackdown on Chinese influence within American academia.
Prosecutors had asked US District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, to sentence Feng “Franklin” Tao to 2½ years in prison, even after the judge in September threw out most of his trial conviction for concealing work he did in China.
Robinson instead sentenced the chemical engineering professor to time served with no fine or restitution. Peter Zeidenberg, his lawyer, in an email said Tao was “immensely relieved by the sentence”.
Tao, who was indicted in 2019, was among about two dozen academics who were charged as part of the “China Initiative”, which launched in 2018 during former Republican President Donald Trump’s era and aimed to counter suspected Chinese economic espionage and research theft.
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Tao, 51, has denied wrongdoing, and Zeidenberg said he plans to appeal his conviction on the one remaining count in the case for failing to disclose his affiliation with a Chinese university on a form submitted to the University of Kansas.