US revival of controversial initiative may backfire on it

China Initiative was the name given to a controversial program introduced in late 2018 by the first Donald Trump administration, and which was run by the United States Department of Justice.

It operated under a typically broad mandate to counter so-called China-related national security threats to the US. The authorization granted to it was sweeping in its intent.

The program steadily gathered a poor reputation. Heavy-handed intimidation of mainly Chinese scholars at all levels in the US became its hallmark. Eighty-eight percent of the people charged under the scheme were of Chinese ancestry, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The project was also seen as green-lighting heightened abuse of Asian Americans in general, especially following Trump's blame game evasion tactics after devastating mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis in the US.

In early 2022, following rising criticism and a strategic review, the Joe Biden administration decided to shut down the China Initiative. While announcing the decision, then-assistant attorney general for national security Matthew Olsen said, "By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently."

In a recent, blistering review, Mike German from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law argued that the program was "an unmitigated failure that caused lasting harm to US national interests".

He added that it fueled a damaging perception of bias in the Justice Department and quickly devolved into "a campaign of racial profiling and fearmongering… which continues to threaten American primacy in science and technology."

A hard lesson learned? Not in hyper-neurotic US, alas.

Within a year of the program's shutdown, Marco Rubio, Trump's recently confirmed new secretary of state, was one of three Senate cosponsors of an arguably even more harsh replacement — "Protect America's Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act". Republicans in the House of Representatives took further action to accelerate this reckless reinstatement project in 2024.

As an article from the US research complex Smithsonian Institution explains, US' first China Initiative was arguably launched, under different circumstances, over 160 years ago. This 2022 paper, drawing on extensive research by historian Gordon H. Chang from Stanford University, provides a detailed overview of the construction of US' first transcontinental railroad.

In 1860, it took six months to cross coast to coast by wagon train, but a rail connection promised to reduce this transit time to two weeks. Union Pacific Railroad began building this connection from the East after the US Civil War ended in 1865, using largely Irish labor.

The Central Pacific Railroad company was making far slower progress, working from the West, due to a lack of adequate manpower. However, after seeing the exceptional work done by a small Chinese crew recruited from the California goldfields, the company sent emissaries to Guangdong province in China to hire fresh hands. They ultimately employed around 12,000 Chinese workers. These work teams displayed a remarkable capacity to self-organize and to build new rail tracks at an unmatchable pace. Without them, the Western connection of the transcontinental line could not have been completed in the way it was by 1869.

Many of these men perished while working. No Chinese workers were honored during the final connection ceremony. Subsequently, these men were forced to live separately, and white mobs repeatedly attacked their settlements. Hundreds were driven out of their homes. In Los Angeles, 18 Chinese residents were lynched in a single day, including one child. Chang notes that "Almost every Chinese community in the western United States in the 19th century suffered destruction."

Various US voices have continued to argue vigorously that the China Initiative should not be brought back. However, Republicans now control the White House, both houses of Congress and the US Supreme Court. So, the way looks clear for a refreshed, aggressive version of the China Initiative — supported by the hawkish Rubio. Literal lynchings of Chinese scholars in the US will not follow. But metaphoric examples may well materialize, and Sinophobia in the US looks set to spike upward.

US is now bullying and threatening allies and foes — and US residents — with uncommon gusto. Apparently, this is a fundamental aspect of how US will be made great again. It looks, too, like a splendid way to drive exceptional scientific talent out of the US. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the departure (to China) of Chinese-born scientists rose 75 percent once Trump's first China Initiative gained traction. Someone (not Einstein) once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

The author is an adjunct professor at the faculty of law, Hong Kong University.