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A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 7 october 2019

U.S. researchers on front line of battle against Chinese theft

By ERIC TUCKER and focusing resources on free exchange of scientific
Associated Press them. "Existentially, we look knowledge wherever ap-
WASHINGTON (AP) — As at China as our greatest propriate."
the U.S. warned allies threat from an intelligence "I do not think we would be
around the world that Chi- perspective, and they suc- wise to create new 'policy'
nese tech giant Huawei ceeded significantly in the on terrain this complex and
was a security threat, the last decade from steal- fraught with internal trade-
FBI was making the same ing our best and brightest offs between legitimate
point quietly to a Midwest- technology," said top U.S. concerns and values with-
ern university. counterintelligence official out some real dialogue on
In an email to the associ- William Evanina. the matter," Wood wrote.
ate vice chancellor for re- The most consequential FBI officials say they've re-
search at the University of case this year centered not ceived consistently positive
Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, on a university but on Hua- feedback from universities.
an agent wanted to know wei, charged with stealing The emails show administra-
if administrators believed This Oct. 4, 2019 photo shows a copy of an FBI pamphlet and corporate trade secrets tors at schools including the
Huawei had stolen any in- related emails. and evading sanctions. The University of North Carolina-
tellectual property from the Associated Press company denies wrong- Chapel Hill and Nebraska
school. ma State University if it has haven't historically been as doing. Several universities requesting briefings, train-
Told no, the agent respond- scientists in specific areas attentive to security as they including Illinois, which re- ing or generally expressing
ed: "I assumed those would and asked about "possible should be. ceived the FBI email last eagerness for cooperation.
be your answers, but I had misuse" of research funds "When we go to the uni- February, have begun sev- Kevin Gamache, chief re-
to ask." by a University of Colorado versities, what we're trying ering ties with Huawei. search security officer for
It was no random query. Boulder professor, accord- to do is highlight the risk to But the government's track the Texas A&M University
The FBI has been reaching ing to the emails. them without discouraging record hasn't been perfect. system, told the AP that he
out to universities across The emails reveal adminis- them from welcoming the Federal prosecutors in 2017 values his FBI interactions
the country as the U.S. tries trators routinely requesting researchers and students dropped charges against a and that it flows in both di-
to stem what American FBI briefings. But they also from a country like China," Temple University professor rections.
authorities portray as the show some struggling to said Assistant Attorney earlier accused of sending "We have a world-class ra-
wholesale theft of tech- balance legitimate nation- General John Demers, the designs for a pocket heater diochemistry faculty, our
nology and trade secrets al security concerns against Justice Department's top to China. The professor, Xia- College of Engineering
by researchers tapped by their own eagerness to national security official. oxing Xi, is suing the FBI. "It has significant numbers of
China. The breadth and avoid stifling research or The threat, officials say, is was totally wrong," he said, faculty and students from
intensity of the campaign tarnishing legitimate sci- genuine. A University of "so I can only speak from China, and we have sev-
emerges in emails ob- entists. The Justice Depart- Kansas researcher was my experience that what- eral other issues of concern
tained by The Associated ment says it appreciates recently charged with ever they put out there is to me as VPR. In all of these
Press through records re- that push-pull and wants collecting federal grant not necessarily true." cases, the FBI is always
quests to public universities only to help separate the money while working full- Richard Wood, the then- available to help," the ad-
in 50 states. relatively few researchers time for a Chinese univer- interim provost at the Uni- ministrator wrote to agents.
Agents have lectured at engaged in theft from the sity, and a Chinese gov- versity of New Mexico, More than two dozen uni-
seminars, briefed adminis- majority who are not. ernment employee was conveyed ambivalence in versities produced records,
trators in campus meetings Senior FBI officials told AP arrested in a visa fraud an email to colleagues last including symposium itin-
and distributed pamphlets they're not encourag- scheme allegedly aimed year. He wrote that he took eraries and a 13-page FBI
with cautionary tales of ing schools to monitor re- at recruiting U.S. research seriously the concerns the pamphlet titled "China:
trade secret theft. In the searchers by nationality talent. The Justice Depart- FBI had identified to him The Risk to Academia" that
past two years, they've but instead to take steps ment launched last year an in briefings, but also said warns that China does "not
requested emails of two to protect research. They effort called the China Ini- "there are real tensions" play by the same rules of
University of Washington consider the briefings vital tiative aimed at identifying with the "traditional aca- academic integrity" as
researchers, asked Oklaho- since they say universities priority trade secret cases demic norms regarding the American universities.q