Court Tosses Kansas Researcher Conviction in Trump-Era ‘China Initiative’

The court ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that lack of disclosure on a University of Kansas form was material to the espionage case.
Published: July 18, 2024

A federal appeals court has reversed the conviction of a former University of Kansas professor who had previously been convicted of not disclosing his work in China.

In April 2022, Feng “Franklin” Tao was convicted of three counts of wire fraud and making a false statement on a University of Kansas form by not disclosing his affiliation with Fuzhou University.

However, a trial judge later threw out the three wire fraud convictions due to lack of evidence, sentencing Tao to time served, reports Reuters.

And on July 11 in a 2-1 vote, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Kansas City, Missouri, ruled that Tao’s lack of disclosure on a University of Kansas form about his work in China wouldn’t influence an actual U.S. Department of Energy or National Science Foundation funding decision. That’s because when Tao submitted his form to the school, he hadn’t made any funding proposals for the agencies to consider. The court ruled the prosecution failed to prove that his lack of disclosure on the form was material to the case. The FBI found no evidence of espionage despite the case starting out as an espionage case.

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Tao was a tenured professor in the chemistry and petroleum engineering departments at the University of Kansas from 2014 until 2019 when he was arrested, reports Fox40. He worked on renewable energy projects. Prosecutors alleged Tao concealed his work with Fuzhou University from the University of Kansas and the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, which provided funding for his research.

Related Article: Mistrial of College Professor Leads to Questions Over DOJ China Initiative

Voiding of Tao’s Conviction Highlights Concerns Over Trump-Era ‘China Initiative’

The tossing of Tao’s conviction is just the latest set-back for the Department of Justice’s Trump administration-era crackdown on what it believed to be the theft of trade secrets and intellectual property by the Chinese government.

The “China Initiative” was launched in 2018 but was shut down in 2022 by the Biden administration due to several failed prosecutions, claims that it had a chilling effect on research, and concerns over bias against Asians. Tao was among several academics who were charged under the program.

The case has bankrupted Tao’s family, reports the South China Morning Post.

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