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The China Initiative (from 3) The Center and many others agree that
“China poses a legitimate threat of espio-
Lieber and others have received wide- nage that the Justice Dept and FBI must
spread support from the academic com- take seriously.”
munity.
Two sides (or more) to every story
“Chilling effect” There are, of course, at least two sides to
More than 2400 faculty members at over every story, and the China Initiative is a
200 universities have called on Attorney illuminating case in point.
General Merrick Garland to squash the
initiative.
In a White Paper (Year in Review) the DOJ
released in November 2020, Trump’s At-
Last September, 174 Stanford University torney General William P. Barr said, “In
faculty members sent an open letter to the last year, the DOJ has made incredible
Garland demanding an end to the initia- strides in countering the systemic efforts
tive and citing a “chilling effect” on incom- by the PRC to enhance its economic and
ing scholars and researchers, particularly military strength at America’s expense.”
those from China.
Andrew E. Lelling, The DOJ announced the China Initiative on
former U.S. Attor- the same day it unsealed criminal charges
ney for Massachu- against United Microelectronics, Fujian
setts and an origi- Jinhua and several other individual de-
nal member of the fendants in 2018 for economic espionage
China Initiative’s against Micron Technology of Boise, Idaho.
working group, has
said that the initia-
tive needs reform.
Merrick Garland
“The initiative has drifted”
“This was sound policy,” Lelling wrote,
but the Initiative has drifted and, in some
significant ways lost its focus. DOJ should
revamp and shut down parts of the pro-
gram,” he told the MIT Technology Review.
Micron’s Taiwan operations were the result of acquisitions of
Inotera Memory. This is the Micron Taoyuan facility. The other
The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpar- Micro DRAM plant is in Taoyuan. The China Initiative was an-
tisan law and policy institute in New York, nounced on the same day the DOJ unsealed criminal charges
against United Microelectronics Corp., headquartered in Taiwan.
maintains that “ending the China Initiative
is vital to U.S. Security.” Like a cheap spy movie
The details surrounding the case against
A study conducted by the University of UMC read like a cheaply made spy movie.
Arizona found that more than half of the
scientists of Chinese ancestry working in According to the Justice Dept., UMC ap-
the U.S. — regardless of citizenship — fear pointed Stephen Chen at Micron’s Taiwan
that they are under surveillance by the subsidiary and assigned him to lead neg-
U.S. government. to page 6
