Source: Caixin Magazine

Many American researchers told Caixin that the actions taken by the Trump administration against the scientific community have various explanations, some of which are completely unreasonable.

Although the US Department of Justice has suspended the "China Initiative" in 2022, Chinese-American scientists are still under the shadow of various wrongful cases caused by this administrative measure. Now a new wave of FBI interviews, visa reviews, and federal grant freezes are targeting them again.

Chinese researchers in the US face a dual dilemma. On one hand, under Trump's pressure on American universities, research funding is constantly threatened, with several universities implementing hiring freezes. They, like other researchers in the US, either consider changing jobs, leaving the US, or completely abandoning research; on the other hand, since the tension between China and the US, persecution actions centered around the "China Initiative" have never stopped. In the past two months, the number of cases where Chinese researchers in the US were questioned by law enforcement agencies has increased significantly, mainly investigating their past cooperation or connections with Chinese research institutions, causing widespread unease within the scientific community.

This has triggered a new wave of return to China. The latest representative figure includes Dr. Shouliang Yi, a senior scientist who once worked at a top laboratory of the US Department of Energy. Dr. Yi began serving as a specially appointed professor and doctoral supervisor at Sichuan University in March, leading a team for green carbon separation technology innovation.

Many American researchers told Caixin that the actions taken by the Trump administration against the scientific community have various explanations, some of which are completely unreasonable. In the past month, their lives have been completely disrupted, repeatedly checking the status of key funding applications, and waiting to pack up and leave at any time. A recent survey by the academic journal Nature showed that 75% of scientists are considering moving away from the US. Over 1200 researchers participated in the survey, and among the 690 postgraduate researchers, 548 said they are considering leaving the US, accounting for about 79%; among the 340 interviewed PhD students, 255 expressed similar intentions to leave the US, accounting for 75%.

Political suspicion

In the "China Initiative" promoted during Trump's first term, more than 20 Chinese-American scientists were prosecuted. Feng Tao, the former chemistry professor at the University of Kansas, was the first Chinese-American scholar to be prosecuted. Last summer, he received good news as all charges were overturned. Recently, Tao filed a lawsuit against his former employer for wrongful dismissal. He accused the University of Kansas of conducting illegal surveillance on him at the request of the FBI and dismissed him before the criminal litigation ended, violating the school's own disciplinary policy for faculty members.

While people were still digesting the information about Tao's case, on March 28th, FBI agents conducted a surprise search of two residences belonging to Xiaofeng Wang, a computer science professor at Indiana University Bloomington. Hours later, the university dismissed him without giving any explanation. Wang's wife also lost her job as a library analyst at Indiana University, without being informed of the reason. Both Wang and his wife are Chinese citizens with permanent residency in the US. Their attorney, Jason Covert, stated that neither of them had been charged with a crime or detained by the police.

In the months after Trump returned to the White House, Chinese scientists and students in the US have been subject to stricter scrutiny. In February, Trump signed a presidential memorandum aimed at guarding against national security risks brought by China, building upon several actions initiated during his first term, including the "China Initiative," which reviewed whether scientists had ties with China. Republican Senator Rick Scott proposed a bill in February attempting to restore a version of the initiative.

In March, Republican lawmakers introduced multiple bills prohibiting Chinese citizens from entering US national laboratories or applying for student visas. John Moolenaar, a Republican congressman from Michigan and chairman of the House Select Committee on China, requested information about Chinese students in STEM fields from six university presidents.

Since last year, a group of top Chinese scientists have returned to work in China, focusing on mathematics and physics fields. Ziyou Yin, founder of the leading Chinese semiconductor equipment company Zhong Micro Semiconductor, recently renounced his US citizenship and restored his Chinese nationality. The US Commerce Department announced restrictions on Americans working in Chinese semiconductor companies in 2022. Min Chen, a professor of mathematics at Purdue University, returned to China in early April. Her husband, Jie Shen, who previously taught at Purdue, returned earlier to serve as dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the Eastern University. Renowned mathematician Huaxin Lin from the University of Oregon returned to China at the end of 2024 to join the Shanghai Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences.

American research funding agencies have frozen or canceled at least $6 billion in research funds and contracts for top universities, casting a chill over the American scientific community. Photo by Jin Yan.

"Academic exodus"

Different from the first term of the Trump administration, it is not just Chinese-American scientists but the entire American scientific community that is enveloped in unease and fear. As part of the Trump administration's reshaping of college admissions and teaching policies, American research funding agencies have frozen or canceled at least $6 billion in research funds and contracts for top universities. The Trump administration's budget cuts have sent shockwaves through the scientific community, triggering an exodus of high-ranking officials from research institutions.

Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced his resignation on April 24th local time. Panchanathan did not explain the sudden departure, but the White House requested that he cut the agency's $9 billion budget by 55% next year and fire half of its staff. Panchanathan, a computer scientist, was nominated as NSF director during Trump's first term in December 2019. He was nominated as a member of the National Science Board during the Obama administration and participated in formulating national science, technology, and innovation strategies as well as NSF development strategies. The NSF plays a crucial role in talent cultivation and advancing fundamental scientific discoveries and their applications.

Even the Nobel Prize cannot provide protection. David Baker, an American biochemist, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the Rosetta software and designing proteins from scratch. American media reported that due to the Trump administration's weakening of research and significant reduction in research funding, 15 of Baker's graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are considering leaving the US.

Such extensive cuts in funding have affected even politically uncontroversial research directions, including Alzheimer's disease and cancer research. Many ongoing projects are unable to recruit more federally funded research participants and cannot embark on new research efforts.

Even without concerns about research funding, the environment of free speech and political trends in the US have caused many scholars to worry. Several American scholars have decided to leave the US and teach abroad, with an "exodus tide" brewing in the American academic community. Jason Stanley, an expert on fascism at Yale University, chose to teach at the University of Toronto. He said this is related to the Trump administration pressuring Columbia University to reform its handling of "anti-Semitism" on campus. Dozens of other American colleges also faced federal government investigations last year due to anti-war protests on campus. Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore, two history professors at Yale University, confirmed their move to the University of Toronto. They expressed concern over the Trump administration's significant cuts to research funding and interference in academic freedom.

French and German governments, among others in Europe, urged their universities and research institutions to use this opportunity to attract talent. Several French universities have established funds to support American scientists. Massachusetts Governor Healy said that Trump's attack on Harvard University is essentially an invitation for other countries to "take away our scientists and researchers."

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7498236583812940323/

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