I'm John Batchel, visiting with Jack Burnham, my eyes on the People's Republic of China

because he has the

language and the skill set to take me to places I didn't know where there was danger. Right now,

we're talking about the U.S. protecting itself because of the bad acting of Chinese nationals

who are also scientists coming to the United States to steal or in some

fashion compromise intellectual property and other pieces of other assets of the United States of America.

Jack, you're reporting that the U.S. government steps back from this prosecution? Why?

So that's a good question, and I think there's still a lot that's left unknown.

For some context, on February 20, several Chinese scientists in the United States were charged and indicted for smuggling biological samples into the United States for study at the University of Michigan.

We're all three were employed in various laboratories.

This was a case that the United States had investigated along with several other cases of

illicit smuggling at the University of Michigan involving Chinese nationals.

That being said, on February 25th, the defense attorneys for three of the accused Chinese scientists

alleged that the Chinese constant Chicago had intervened with the Department of Justice

to get the charges

dropped and the case dismissed. And so the charge isn't coming from the U.S. government, but rather

from the defense attorneys that the Chinese government had something to do with interrupting the DOJ's

ongoing prosecution efforts of these three scientists.

And the suspension is reverberating through the system, and that they, in other words,

essentially this is to await the trade negotiation? Is that the way to look about it?

We have about a minute, Jack.

I think it's quite possible. I think something that's very interesting to note about this case in particular is that these three, when they were arrested and charged, US Attorney

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