I’m not sure how many more of these we need to see before we realize that we’ve got a very serious China problem on our hands and it has nothing to do with their military (or at least not much) or their control of the global supply chain, though that’s a disaster of its own. China has been stocking up our country with spies and shoveling technological secrets out by the bucketload. Some of their biggest bases of operation are found in our universities, where their money allows them to get their hooks into American liberals who are very hungry for that sweet, sweet, Chinese cash cow. In other places, they export their own people to settle in the United States while still maintaining their covert ties to the homeland.
Today’s story combines elements of both and it takes place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Gang Chen has been working at the school for decades as a research scientist and educator in the field of nanotechnology. But this week the FBI came to get him, alleging that he has taken millions of dollars in grant money from the U.S. government while also receiving even larger amounts of funding from China in addition to handsome payments directly to his personal coffers. He never disclosed his ties to China and has apparently been sending reams of technical data and research material back to Beijing. (CBS Boston)
An MIT professor was charged Thursday with millions of dollars in grant fraud for allegedly hiding his relationship with China. Gang Chen, 56, was arrested at his home in Cambridge and search warrants were executed at his house and office.
The FBI in Boston said Chen failed to disclose his work with China to the U.S. Department of Energy when he applied for millions of dollars in grants.
“Our investigation found Chen was working with the Chinese communist government in various capacities dating back to 2012 at our country’s expense,” Joseph Bonavolonta, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Boston, said at a news conference in Boston, announcing the charges.
Bonavolonta said Chen knowingly defrauded taxpayers out of at least $19 million in grants to enhance China’s research in nanotechnology.