Dr. Charles Lieber and the China Initiative

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4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

On December 21, Harvard University chemist Dr. Charles Lieber was convicted of making false statements and other tax offenses in connection with his participation in the Chinese Thousand Talents program. Lieber’s case got a lot of attention, both because of his profile as a well known researcher at Harvard University, and because of the case’s connection with the U.S. government's occasionally controversial three-year-old program called the China Initiative. The program was unveiled in 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and has been used by the Justice Department to investigate and charge a variety of wrongdoings connected with the Chinese government, economic espionage, research security, and other issues.

To talk through the Lieber case and the China Initiative generally, Jacob Schulz sat down with Emily Weinstein, a research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and Margaret Lewis, a professor at Seton Hall Law School. Emily and Margaret have written extensively about the China Initiative and provide thoughts on the Lieber case, as well as what to make of the initiative as a whole.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair
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0:14.7	That's patreon.com slash LawFair.
0:18.2	Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair
0:25.6	no bull and the aftermath.
0:32.9	And so in some ways I wish there was more centralization because where I get
0:37.9	really concerned is when a message goes out that we're concerned with US
0:43.2	government about threats from China but now we're saying this to a bunch of
0:47.5	field agents who might not necessarily have the training both in how federal
0:54.1	grants work but also in what kinds of connections to different entities in
1:00.0	China might really be of concern.
1:03.7	I'm Jacob Schultz and this is the LawFair podcast January 11th, 2022.
1:12.5	On December 21st Harvard University chemist Dr. Charles Lieber was convicted of
1:17.9	making false statements and other tax offenses in connection with his
1:22.2	participation in the Chinese Thousand Talents program. Lieber's case
1:26.8	catalogue of attention both because of his profile as a well-known researcher at
1:31.5	Harvard University and because of the case his connection with the US
1:35.7	government's occasionally controversial three-year-old program called the
1:39.3	China Initiative.
1:40.8	The program was unveiled in 2018 by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and has
1:46.4	been used by the Justice Department to investigate in charge of a variety of
1:49.7	wrongdoing connected with the Chinese government economic espionage research
	...

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