Source: Politics<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The Justice Department dropped its case Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor charged last year<\/a> with concealing research ties to the Chinese government, saying it could \u201cno longer meet its burden of proof at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a single-page filing in federal court in Boston.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the move was \u201cin the interests of justice\u201d and was the result of new information the government had received about the allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cAs prosecutors, we have an obligation in every matter we pursue to continually examine the facts while being open to receiving and uncovering new information.\u201d<\/p>\n The outcome, which had been expected and had been earlier recommended by prosecutors in Boston<\/a>, is a further setback to the Justice Department\u2019s pursuit of academics in the U.S. accused of concealing research relationships with China.<\/p>\n The move comes as the department completes a review of the China Initiative, an effort it launched during the Trump administration to crack down on Chinese economic espionage and trade secret theft but one critics say has unduly targeted researchers based on ethnicity.<\/p>\n Chen was accused last year of concealing ties to Beijing while also collecting U.S. dollars for his nanotechnology research. Prosecutors accused him at the time of entering into undisclosed contracts and appointments with Chinese entities, including acting as an \u201coverseas expert\u201d for the Chinese government at the request of the People\u2019s Republic of China Consulate Office in New York.<\/p>\n Many of those roles were \u201cexpressly intended to further the PRC\u2019s scientific and technological goals,\u201d authorities said in court documents.<\/p>\n The case began to wobble as the government received new information, including from an Energy Department official, a person familiar with the matter said last week.<\/p>\n Chen\u2019s lawyers have consistently said he did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n In a statement Thursday, defense attorney Robert Fisher called the case a \u201cwayward prosecution\u201d and said his client was eager to return to work.<\/p>\n \u201cOur defense was this: Gang did not commit any of the offenses he was charged with. Full stop. He was never in a talent program. He was never an overseas scientist for Beijing. He disclosed everything he was supposed to disclose and he never lied to the government or anyone else,\u201d Fisher said in a statement.<\/p>\n Despite a conviction last month of a Harvard University professor<\/a> on charges that he hid his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program, other high-profile cases brought as part of the China Initiative have faltered.<\/p>\n A federal judge in September, for instance, threw out all charges<\/a> against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA, and the university has since offered to reinstate him.<\/p>\n