Scientist vindicated, damage to science permanent

Feng "Franklin" Tao can finally breathe easy after a panel of federal judges overturned the former University of Kansas' Chinese-American professor's conviction for "defrauding the US government by hiding his research ties to China". The judicial procedures against Tao ended on July 11.

That's another example of the bankruptcy of the so-called China Action Plan, launched by the US Department of Justice in 2018, under which about 20 Chinese-American scholars have faced criminal charges; the plan came to an end in February 2022. Tao was the first Chinese-American scholar to face charges under the plan, as well as the last to see his case dropped. After an FBI probe in 2019, Tao was charged with 10 crimes, for which had he been found guilty he would have been sentenced to around 150 years in prison. He cleared himself of six charges via the jury while three were overturned by the judge and now the last one has finally been declared void.

But the damage it has done to the US science community is permanent. Tao is fortunate enough to have published a book and 16 academic essays even after the University of Kansas suspended him and the US National Science Foundation stopped funding his research. That such a witch hunt could take place two decades into the 21st century reflects the nervousness of US society and its ability to invent enemies. Hundreds of leading US scientists, among them some Nobel Prize winners, had jointly signed letters in 2021 against what they called an "anti-China, anti-science witch hunt".

There is no way to blame any single political force for the witch hunt that lasted for two US administrations with opposing political views. It shows how distrust and suspicion of people of Chinese origin transcend the US political system. While this is the end of the China Action Plan, we hope the US does not come up with another plan to harm people of Chinese origin and even science.