The U.S. Deports A Chinese Scientist (1950)
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's June 5th. This day in 1943, the United States is in the process of deporting Qian Xuesen, a Chinese aerospace engineer who had lived in the US for decades and contributed significantly to WWII-era scientific research.
Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Qian came to the U.S. in the first place, rose the scientific and political ranks -- but then got caught up in larger geopolitical fears about Chinese communism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jodi Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day, June 5, 1950, the army abruptly revoked the security clearance of Shien Shusen, and he was questioned by the FBI. |
| 0:20.0 | Who was Shien? Well, he was a bona fide rocket |
| 0:23.3 | scientist. Born in China, he got degrees at MIT and Caltech and was part of some of the most |
| 0:28.5 | secretive and ambitious weapons and aeronautics plans of the 1940s, technology that helped the |
| 0:34.5 | U.S. win the war and then set itself up for a golden age of innovation. |
| 0:39.1 | But then, after World War II, geopolitically, everything started to shift. The Red Scare, |
| 0:44.8 | fears of a communist China, the Korean War, and here we are with Shenzhousen losing his security |
| 0:50.7 | clearance, getting janned up for almost five years, and then eventually being |
| 0:54.4 | deported and having to return to China. Not for nothing, we will get into this, but in the wake |
| 0:59.0 | of World War II, the U.S. brought in a number of German scientists with very questionable backgrounds, |
| 1:03.7 | so the politics here are very interesting and a little twisted. Anyway, listeners, why in the world |
| 1:09.5 | would we be interested in talking about a story where twisted political doctrine supersedes over questions of immigration, scientific research, and American global leadership? |
| 1:17.5 | Who knows? |
| 1:18.2 | Who knows? |
| 1:18.8 | Who knows? |
| 1:18.9 | No reason. |
| 1:19.3 | We know why we would be interested in this story right now. |
| 1:21.2 | But here, as always, to discuss Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley. |
| 1:26.5 | Hello there. |
| 1:27.1 | Hello, Jody. Hey there. Sometimes the brain drain happens and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley. Hello there. Hello, Jody. |
| 1:28.2 | Hey there. |
... |
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