Professor convicted for concealing ties with China
Feng 'Franklin' Tao was found guilty of fraud and making false statements.
Tao had been working on renewable energy projects at the University of Kansas Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis since 2014.
A University of Kansas professor was convicted for concealing ties with the Chinese government while participating in research funded by the United States Government.
Feng “Franklin” Tao was found guilty of fraud and making false statements. He now faces four-to-eight years in prison.
Tao had been working on renewable energy projects at the University of Kansas Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis since 2014.
He reportedly signed a five-year contract with China’s Fuzhou University four years later in 2018. The contract “required him to be a full-time employee after applying to participate in one of China’s ‘talent plans,’” according to Reuters.
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The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI claim that China uses these “talent plans” to get foreign researchers to share their work and findings, which can then be used to “advance China’s national, military, and economic goals.”
However, Tao’s defense team argued that the professor had never actually accepted a formal job offer from Fuzhou University, and therefore did not violate any rules regarding the disclosure of information.
“While we are deeply disappointed with the jury’s verdict, we believe it was so clearly against the weight of the evidence we are convinced that it will not stand,” Tao’s lawyer Peter Zeidenberg said in a statement.
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Tao was one of nearly two dozen professors and academics charged under the Trump-era “China Initiative,” which investigated those suspected of “Chinese economic espionage and research theft.”
Although the initiative ended in February of this year, the DoJ claimed that it would still look into and pursue certain cases due to the ongoing threats posed by China.
Tao was suspended from his role at the University of Kansas, barred from campus, and forced to wear a tracking device after being arrested in 2019.
Tao and Zeidberg plan to challenge the verdict of the trial.
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