By Gang Chen, January 21, 2022
There
is no winner in what seems to me a politically and racially motivated
prosecution: My reputation is tarnished, my family suffered, my
institute lost the service of a professor and bore the financial burden
of my legal defense, US taxpayers’ money was wasted, the ability of the
United States to attract talents from around the world has plummeted,
and the scientific community is terrified. Lelling and Bonavolonta
succeeded in creating the “chilling effect” they
wanted by deterring researchers from collaborating with China — but in
the process, they managed to blunt one of our great strengths as a
nation, our rich history of academic research and collaboration, which
leads to discoveries happening here instead of in some other country.
They did this at a time when international scientific collaboration is
urgently needed to address humanity’s existential threats, such as
COVID-19 and global warming. Now, for whatever reason, even Lelling is
acknowledging that the China Initiative he helped create has “lost its focus.”