The China Initiative was a program of the United States Department of Justice under President Donald Trump to combat alleged economic espionage and intellectual property theft purportedly linked to China. Launched in November 2018, the program targeted hundreds of prominent Chinese-American academics and scientists, of whom an estimated 250 lost their jobs. Many more had their careers negatively impacted, and the prosecutions also contributed to at least one suicide.
Critics argued that the prosecutions contributed to a rise in incidents of violence against Asian Americans from 2019 to 2020 and were racially biased and ineffective. In one case, an FBI agent admitted to making false statements in the investigation of Anming Hu, while in another case, the investigation involving Franklin Feng Tao was based on false evidence provided to the FBI. The Department of Justice claimed to have ended the program on February 23, 2022, mostly as a result of accusations that the China Initiative was racially profiling Chinese-American citizens and other residents of Chinese origin or ancestry. However, Republican lawmakers have called for reviving the program. The initiative led to a large exodus of influential Chinese-American scientists, many of whom decided to move to China.
Despite the official end of the China Initiative, investigations led by the National Institutes of Health as part of the initiative continued to impact researchers, resulting in the suicide of Jane Ying Wu on July 10, 2024, despite no official charges ever being brought forward against her. The NIH investigations resulted in the removal of over 250 (mostly Asian) scientists as of August 2024 for failing to disclose ties to China or breaking other rules. However the investigations have been criticized as biased and rigged in favor of NIH and the universities involved while providing little to no guidance on what or how to disclose the necessary information.
Origin
The China Initiative was launched to prosecute scientific researchers and academics affiliated with China. It was set in motion by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-US President Donald Trump's first Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November 2018, with the goal of preventing industrial espionage. The China Initiative was one of Sessions' last actions as the official Attorney General of the US, in which the DOJ promised aggressive pursuit of Chinese commercial theft. Trump and his administration believed that China was using researchers and students to steal American technological innovations.Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (March 14, 2022). "Have Chinese Spies Infiltrated American Campuses?" The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2022. The program gained momentum amidst rising tensions between the US and China due to trade wars and related tariff exchanges.
The DOJ maintains that there is no strict definition of what a China Initiative case is,Prasso, Sheridan (December 14, 2021). "China Initiative Set Out to Catch Spies. It Didn't Find Many". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2022. but most of the cases involve researchers who failed to disclose Chinese funding on grant applications and many involve professors at US institutions.Gerstein, Josh (February 23, 2022). "DOJ shuts down China-focused anti-espionage program". Politico. Archived from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2022. Despite the initiative's goal of combating espionage, only three out of fifty unsealed China Initiative cases alleged that secrets had been handed to Chinese agents as of 2021.
End Academic Andrew B. Kenney writes that after 2018, the initiative contributed to an outflow of Chinese-descended scientific talent from U.S. universities.
On 23 February 2022, the DOJ announced that it was ending the China Initiative, largely due to "perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans and United States residents of Chinese origin as disloyal." Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said the decision did not mean the DOJ was abandoning its response to the threat posed by China, but rather that it wanted to pursue that goal differently. According to Olsen, the DOJ will continue to combat threats posed by the Chinese government; it will also continue to pursue the cases begun under the program.
The China Initiative cases typically involved lying or omitting information on disclosure forms. Some cases resulted in convictions, such as those of Charles Lieber (who was found guilty of making false statements to federal officials and filing false tax returns) and Meyya Meyyappan (a NASA scientist who pled guilty to making false statements to federal officials). Others have been reined in or abandoned, like that of Gang Chen, or defeated in a trial like Anming Hu's.Gilbert, Natasha; Kozlov, Max (February 25, 2022). "The Controversial China Initiative Is Ending, and Researchers Are Relieved". Scientific American. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2022.Trager, Rebecca (June 24, 2021). "Former Nasa nanotechnologist jailed for hiding his China ties". chemistryworld.com. Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2022. The suicide of Jane Ying Wu from Northwestern University is reported to have been caused by the impact of the China initiative. A review of existing cases was conducted and the DOJ is "comfortable with where those cases are."
Aftermath
Although the China Initiative has officially ended, the "climate of fear and anxiety" has not dissipated, and scientists are being pressured in other ways, according to sources reported by the scientific journal Nature in February 2023. Universities have become more active in "assisting investigations and pursuing potential wrongdoing". Gang Chen states that "The government has not done enough" to allay concerns and "It has only intensified". Jenny Lee, a social scientist at the University of Arizona, states that the end of the China Initiative provided the illusion that scientists of Chinese descent would receive a reprieve from scrutiny, but the "chilling effect" is still present and the US government has continued to adopt policies and positions perpetuating the narrative that scientists from China are spies. In a survey published in February 2023, a link was found between fear of racial profiling and a desire among scientists to return to China.
Chinese American scientists who have been caught up in cases such as those involving Dr. Xiaoxing Xi and Gang Chen say that they are still afraid to do research or apply for federal funding, while Anming Hu has had trouble securing funding. Chen says that he fears the government would use the application forms against him as they did before. Xi sought damages for the harm he suffered as a result of his arrest, but his claims were dismissed in March 2022. He spends much of his time raising awareness of anti-Asian sentiment as well as following cases of scientists in similar situations. Both Xi and Hu had their team sizes reduced from before their cases, and Hu no longer takes on researchers and students from China to avoid risk. Chen also sought to avoid risk by switching research topics to those with less obvious commercial applications while avoiding contact with researchers and students from China. Hu claims that he would have progressed much further in his research level had he not been caught up in the China Initiative.
Revival Two bills introduced by Republicans that passed the House of Representatives on September 11, 2024, were described as reviving the China Initiative. The bills were part of "China Week", a House Republican-led effort to advance China-related legislation.
In January 2026, lawmakers abandoned a proposal to revive the China Initiative that had been considered in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Despite the official abandonment of a revived China Initiative, leading immigration lawyers and activists claim that the US government's crackdown on Chinese scientists and researchers has not only continued but also intensified to an extent not seen during the "China Initiative" of President Donald Trump's first term. According to former Assistant US Attorney Robert Fisher, "we are clearly in an era of China Initiative 2.0" and there has been a significant uptick in investigations involving China-linked academics, although they have not yet resulted in indictments or prosecutions. Since January 2025, Chinese academics have been subject to arrests and investigations involving search warrants for their homes and border stops and visa restrictions. The FBI arrested and charged several Chinese researchers at American universities, including the University of Michigan and Indiana University, for smuggling biological materials and hiding ties to Chinese state institutions. Indiana University researcher Youhuang Xiang was arrested on allegations that he smuggled samples of E coli bacteria into the US and concealed his membership in the Communist Party. His visa was revoked and he spent four months in detention before entering a guilty plea deal in April 2026 and was ordered deported to China. However, Indiana University Bloomington Association of University Professors (AAUP) disputes the government's smuggling allegation against Xiang. Xiang's colleagues claim that his actions were mischaracterized and constituted a "common and routine method of obtaining research samples". Justin Sadowsky, legal director at the Chinese-American Legal Defence Alliance, says that Xiang was imprisoned for four months "because he didn't disclose something on a customs form". In March 2026, semiconductor researcher Wang Danhao died at the University of Michigan shortly after he was questioned by US federal law enforcement.
Beyond executive action, a bipartisan consensus in Congress is driving the push to restrict research ties to China. Multiple bills have been introduced specifically targeting economic espionage and intellectual property theft in a framework mirroring the 2018 China Initiative. According to Clay Zhu, a California-based lawyer, unlike China Initiative 1.0, which focused on criminal prosecutions, enforcement has shifted to civil action that is quieter, more effective, and attracts less public attention. The result is an "atmosphere of fear, and the chilling effect has been working so far".
Criticism
Shortly after its launch, the initiative was criticized from various perspectives for racial profiling and generating fear among Chinese-descended scientists at U.S. universities.
Under the China Initiative, the FBI opened thousands of investigations. In July 2021, six cases were dropped, and that September, the case of Anming Hu ended with his acquittal, revealing "law enforcement errors and prosecutorial overzealousness."
Ineffectiveness
According to a Bloomberg News analysis of the 50 indictments displayed on the China Initiative webpage, the program had not "been very successful at catching spies." Most of the cases listed by December 17, 2021, involved individual profiteering or career advancement by the accused, rather than state-directed spying. Despite this, many of these indictments portray the alleged crimes as for the benefit of China. Seton Hall University law professor Margaret Lewis described this as "a conflation of individual motives with a country's policy goals" that has led to the criminalization of "China-ness."