Thread by @Kate_OKeeffe

The competition between the U.S. and China for science and tech talent is fierce, and ethnically Chinese scientists living here are tragically in the crosshairs. 1/x

The Chinese Communist Party disproportionately targets them, viewing them as state resources regardless of their nationalities or desires, and the U.S. government tries to counter those efforts, sometimes failing quite counterproductively. 2/x

Meanwhile, many of the U.S. universities where these scientists work are unmotivated to address the issue due partly to their reliance on Chinese money. The U.S. has not passed clear laws banning the concerning activities, nor has it addressed universities’ funding concerns. 3/x

But that’s not a simple narrative. We often get stories like this instead:

technologyreview.com/2021/12/02/104… 4/x

Right off the bat, how can these two statements, in the same article, both be true? 5/x

“Now, an investigation by MIT Technology Review shows that the China Initiative has strayed far from its initial mission.”

and

“Though considered one of the DOJ’s flagship efforts, the department has never actually defined what constitutes a China Initiative case.” 6/x

Now on to the disclosures: 7/x

Why did MIT Technology Review not disclose that MIT self-reported as the #1 recipient of Chinese funding among major U.S. research universities?

www2.ed.gov/policy/highere… 8/x

9/x

Conversely, why did it “disclose” the nationality and ethnicity of its reporters--how is that in any way relevant? And why were none of these disclosures in the main body of the story? 10/x

Also, while it is def true that the array of U.S. cases against Chinese scientists has contributed to a climate of fear, why is there no mention of the Chinese Communist Party’s role in this, including racially profiling & then targeting many of the scientists to begin with? 11/x