The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has described how the Chinese government oversees expert recruitment programmes, such as the Thousand Talents, offers lucrative financial and research benefits to recruit individuals working and studying outside of China who possess access to, or expertise in, high-priority research fields. There is no evidence, however, that intellectual property was stolen or that research or patient care was compromised. For a decade, the Chinese government has been operating the Thousand Talents programme to recruit science and technology experts from western universities and research institutes to work in China.Ī report from Moffitt earlier this month to Florida state legislators, who are investigating the issue, said the faculty members accepted personal cash honoraria and travel benefits during their visits to China, without reporting these to Moffitt, and that they also opened personal bank accounts in China to receive these unreported funds. The other four researchers also lost their jobs. Its president and chief executive, Alan List, and director, Thomas Sellers, both resigned on 18 December over their participation in China’s ‘Thousand Talents’ programme, as well as participation by at least four other faculty members. The Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Florida has also fallen foul of these rules. Van Andel is not the only US research institute in hot water for allowing its scientists to accept Chinese funding. Van Andel admits no liability, and notes that both the professors involved have resigned. The DOJ accuses Van Andel of making ‘factual representations to NIH with deliberate ignorance or reckless disregard for the truth regarding the Chinese grants’. However, the DOJ alleges that the Van Andel Research Institute never divulged to the NIH that the scientists also had foreign research funding. The US Justice Department (DOJ) announced just before Christmas that it had reached a $5.5 million (£4.24 million) settlement with the Michigan-based Van Andel Research Institute over allegations that it failed to disclose that the Chinese government was funding two of its researchers.īetween 20, the non-profit biomedical research and education organisation received grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the two researchers in question. Amid fears that the US is in danger of losing its technological edge over competitors, the government is seeking to crackdown on Chinese government programmes operating in the country. There is concern that US universities, government research facilities and companies are vulnerable to theft of sensitive information by China and other hostile foreign governments.
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Intellectual property theft has become a growing worry for the US government.