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Harvard Professor Goes on Trial on Charges of Lying About China Ties

December 14, 2021

Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber went on federal trial in Boston Tuesday over whether he misled the U.S. Defense Department and others about his relationship with a Chinese university, testing the government's policing of U.S.-China collaborations after a similar case ended in an acquittal earlier this year.

Mr. Lieber, a pioneer in the field of nanoscience, was arrested in January 2020 on charges of lying to government agents about his involvement with a Chinese talent-recruitment program and the money he received through it. He has pleaded not guilty to those and related tax charges, and his lawyers have argued he didn't mean to mislead anyone about his affiliations.

Jury selection consumed much of Tuesday morning behind closed doors, with U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel ultimately seating a jury of ten men and four women on Tuesday afternoon. Opening statements in the closely watched trial are set to begin on Wednesday morning.

Prosecutors alleged that, starting in 2012, Mr. Lieber participated in China's Thousand Talents program and was under contract to be paid up to $50,000 a month to work at the Wuhan University of Technology, advising students and researchers there. Instead he told both Defense Criminal Investigative Service agents and the National Institutes of Health in 2018 and 2019 that he was never asked to be a part of the Chinese program, the indictment alleged.

The trial comes as the Justice Department has struggled with an initiative aimed at stopping the transfer of American technology, research and other proprietary information to China. U.S. officials have worried that losing leadership in key scientific fields could lead to the U.S. being eclipsed as the world superpower.

Prosecutors have accused more than a dozen academics of lying about their China affiliations when applying for federal taxpayer support for their research. While such affiliations aren't illegal, prosecutors said funding agencies need a clear picture of them before making decisions about what projects to support.

Citing Mr. Lieber's Chinese contract, prosecutors said he was obligated to "conduct national important (key) projects…that meet China's national strategic development requirements or stand at the forefront of international science and technology research field."

Some of the professors facing similar charges have pleaded guilty while others have said the rules about what needed to be reported weren't previously clear and argued they never intended to deceive.

In a March letter, dozens of colleagues of Mr. Lieber, who is 62 years old and suffering from an incurable lymphoma, described him as the victim of an "unjust criminal prosecution" and said the cases were "discouraging U.S. scientists from collaborating with peers in other countries, particularly China."

Some former national-security prosecutors said such support could help Mr. Lieber with the jury. "He will have the opportunity to have witnesses testify to his reputation for truthfulness. That can be powerful evidence for a jury to hear," said Michael Atkinson, a former prosecutor and inspector general for U.S. intelligence agencies who is now at the law firm Crowell & Moring.

Civil liberties and academic groups have criticized the cases for creating an environment of suspicion that they say stigmatized Chinese and other Asians, pointing to the acquittal in September of University of Tennessee-Knoxville professor Anming Hu on charges that he hid his China ties when applying for research grants to work on a NASA project.

When Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) asked Attorney General Merrick Garland in October about the Tennessee case and how the department could ensure it wasn't wrongfully targeting people of Asian descent, Mr. Garland said the new head of the Justice Department's national-security division would review the division's activities. "I can assure you that cases will not be pursued based on discrimination, but only on facts justifying them," Mr. Garland said.

The federal judge who acquitted Mr. Hu said the rules governing the research awards were confusing and prosecutors had provided no evidence that the professor intended to hide information from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the agency that had supported his work.

In Mr. Lieber's case, prosecutors have pointed to some of Mr. Lieber's emails and alleged that he knew he was misleading government agents.

In one email, for example, Mr. Lieber allegedly told an associate two days after his interview with Defense Department agents: "I will be careful about what I discuss with Harvard University, and none of this will be shared with government investigators at this time."

In a memo filed last week, prosecutors said they planned to introduce other emails and evidence showing Mr. Lieber agreed in 2011 to serve as a "strategic scientist" for the Wuhan University of Technology, where one of his former postdoc students worked, and that, in 2012, he agreed to the Thousand Talents contract and performed work under it.

The Wuhan school had also appointed Mr. Lieber as director of the WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory, a lab that Harvard officials said they had no knowledge of and hadn't approved as a collaborator.

When Defense Department investigators interviewed Mr. Lieber in 2018, he told them he "wasn't sure" how China characterized him, prosecutors said.

The government said it planned to show that Mr. Lieber lied to protect his reputation and career at Harvard, and to preserve his ability to receive federal research funding.

Mr. Lieber unsuccessfully sued Harvard last year to cover his legal expenses. The university said his actions weren't covered under its indemnification policies, arguing, "the known facts show that he intentionally lied to Harvard and federal authorities about his activities in China."

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com