As a nanotechnology expert at the University of Tennessee, Anming Hu has been a target of the federal government’s entire legal force.

According to court documents, investigators discreetly monitored him for over a year. They took all of his electronic gear. There was a lot of questioning of him and the people who employed him. Six offenses that might have resulted in decades in prison were alleged against him by the FBI in February 2020.

In its mission to crack down on illegal technology transfer to China, the Justice Department tried and failed spectacularly to indict Hu. There were no witnesses or evidence of anything more than a paperwork mix-up that led to his dismissal, according to local media reports. After the first trial ended in a hung jury, this was the second.

NBC News was unable to speak with Anming Hu. His YouTube video ended with him saying, “The scars and the painful memories are still in my heart, for now, so I prefer to remain silent,”

One failure after another has befallen the Justice Department’s “the China Initiative,” an attempt to stop China from stealing cutting-edge science that some argue has gotten out of control. To encourage American scientists to collaborate with Chinese counterparts, the government ignored disclosure requirements for years. When the U.S. and China’s relationship has deteriorated, rule infractions have become criminal offenses. There are, however, a number of those charges that aren’t holding up.

At the end of July the Justice Department dismissed six cases, among them an investigation into the discovery of a gene that causes heart disease by a Cleveland Clinic researcher. Prosecutors dropped their case against a visiting Chinese scientist at the University of Virginia last year after the university confirmed that the scientist had permission to examine some of the material he was accused of stealing.

According to Robert Daly, a China researcher at the Wilson Center, “The China Initiative has turned up very little by way of clear espionage and the transfer of genuinely strategic information to the PRC,” Process crimes and disclosure concerns make up the bulk of them.” Because it’s perceived as discriminatory, an increasing number of voices are pushing for an end to the China program.”

Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s attorney general, launched the China Initiative in 2018. However, concerns about Chinese espionage in the United States and the transfer of knowledge to China through corporate and academic ties are bipartisan in the US government.

American intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been concerned for years about China’s efforts to attract professors and researchers, some of whom are Chinese-Americans, into so-called “talent programs,” which discreetly pay them to share their research, NBC News reported last year.

It was noted in a 2019 Senate report that the “Thousand Talents” initiative of China aims to reward Chinese researchers and developers for transferring their work, expertise, and discoveries back to China in exchange for pay, research funds, and lab space. Inappropriately, China exploits American science and skills for its own financial and military advantage.”

As a result, the Justice Department began pursuing cases of grant fraud, claiming regulations that compel researchers to declare their foreign links as the basis for its investigations.

Big instances like that of an Ohio State University professor of medicine convicted in May after he admitted lying on federal grant applications about his ties to China have resulted in victories for the government.

Charles Lieber, the Harvard chemistry and chemical biology department chair, was indicted last year and has pleaded not guilty to allegations of lying about a $50,000-a-month contract with an unnamed Chinese institution.

Federal law enforcement, on the other hand, has been criticized as the inappropriate approach to the problem. There is no evidence that every American academic having a connection to a Chinese university is guilty of misconduct, even if they failed to disclose their ties. U.S.-China ties have deteriorated in recent years, making it difficult for academics to interact across national lines.

A change in the ground occurred beneath them, Daly said. “The relationship between the United States and China has shifted. There is now a lot of skepticism about cooperation with China.”

Peter Zeidenberg, a lawyer who has represented several professors and researchers accused under the China Initiative and related instances, believes that the Justice Department appears to misunderstand the nature of academic research.

“The goal is to publish,” he stated. “There aren’t any hidden agendas.”

Former trade counsellor at the US Embassy in China and distinguished senior scholar at the University of California Berkeley, Mark Cohen, agrees with this assessment.

It’s an issue of great concern to Cohen, but “The FBI is going too far,” he said in an interview with NBC News. Students at universities have many difficulties when it comes to pursuing these cases They are not subject to export restrictions.”

The Justice Department has not abandoned its China Initiative, citing on its website that 80% of all economic espionage charges are linked to China. According to DOJ statistics, four of the 12 cases initiated under the initiative involving academic or grant-making organizations have resulted in guilty pleas or convictions.

“Dedicated to countering unlawful PRC government efforts to undermine America’s national security and harm our economy,” DOJ spokesman Wyn Horbuckle told NBC News, but the department also “takes seriously concerns about discrimination and are committed to working with affected communities to build on and improve the department’s efforts.”

“The problem of technology transfer at universities is real,” John Demers, the former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a recent interview. In any case, he asserted that he feels that the regulations governing conflict of interest and transparency have not been strictly enforced for a long time. So, he advocated an amnesty program that would allow academics with unreported foreign affiliations to come forward and escape sanctions if they did so. It has not yet been adopted by the Biden administration.

On the basis of their suspicions that he was a Chinese agent, the FBI began investigating Hu, but found no evidence of it. For failing to declare his link with a Chinese institution while conducting research under NASA contract, federal investigators filed allegations of grant fraud.

US District Court Judge Thomas Varlan ruled on September 9 that Hu was not guilty of defrauding NASA and found no evidence that Hu intended to mislead NASA. The NASA inspector general decided that the agency was not affected, according to the judge’s ruling. According to a court, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation was inexperienced with the federal grant procedure and university disclosure standards. The FBI’s Knoxville field office has refused to comment.

Last Monday, the University of Tennessee offered Hu a chance to return to work.

Qing Wang, a geneticist who spent two decades at the Cleveland Clinic studying the genes that cause heart disease, was also the subject of a failed prosecution. It was clear to him that he was planning to spend the rest of his life there. However, the FBI showed up at his door one day last year.

Soon, he was being held in custody and charged with felonies; he didn’t know what was happening.

Wang admitted to NBC News that he was “I was completely shocked,” by the experience. It seemed to me that, you know, all of this is over.” The end of my scientific career, as well as the end of my life, seemed like the end of the world to me.”

Previously, Wang had been directing a $3.6 million federal grant-funded study project on the genetic causes of heart disease.

When the FBI requested information on his participation in the Thousand Talents Program, he didn’t provide it, the agency alleged in a criminal complaint. He also didn’t disclose roughly $500,000 in government funding from China that coincided with his U.S.-funded work.

Even if Wang didn’t fill out the forms correctly, Zeidenberg said he was prepared to prove that Wang had disclosed his job and studies in China to the NIH.

Wang stated, “I disclosed my Chinese positions and the grants,” he added. Nobody can accuse me of wrongdoing. In my opinion, I didn’t break any laws.”

Those accusations were withdrawn in July by the Justice Department.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day. As a result of that day, I believe my scientific career has a new lease of life.”

Wang, on the other hand, has arrived in Shanghai and is searching for a job. The United States looks to have lost a well-known geneticist.

There is a lot of dread in the scientific world because of what they are doing, he said. “I’m very sure that a lot of people will return to China. They are basically doing the Chinese government a favor by doing this.”