In writing a post of this type, we must be very careful to separate politics from ethics. As I have consistently stated, ethics does not care who we voted for – or why, only that the person conducts her or his life in an ethical fashion. Adding an extra layer to this challenge, is that in this “Time of the Corona Virus,” politicization takes on another life of its own. Nevertheless, something has happened at Harvard University with the Chair of Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department that allegedly has dangerous ties to the People’s Republic of China.
The U.S. Department of Justice
In February 2020, Dr. Charles Lieber was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement.
Dr. Lieber is “the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which specialized in the area of nanoscience, had received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD).”
Here is where intellectual property, biology and even pandemic risks come into sharp focus. Harvard University had no idea that going back to 2011, “Lieber became a ‘Strategic Scientist’ at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017.”
Ethically and by law, Lieber is supposed to notify the NIH and DOD of any association of their grant money with foreign agents. If you would like, because many are, it is not illogical to make a logical association between these rather porous ethical boundaries and spying activities. Lieber was “recruited” into China’s “Thousand Talents Plan.”
Again, according to the DOJ, “China’s Thousand Talents Plan (is) designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.”
Lieber, in short, was very well paid to bring his expertise to China, up to and including a stipend of $50,000 a month (when he is there), lucrative living expenses (up to $158,000) and “more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT (Wuhan).”
The problem here is that Lieber is alleged to have lied to the NIH and ultimately to Harvard about his involvement with the Chinese government and the now infamous Wuhan laboratory.
Where it Gets Interesting
As if the situation with Lieber was not serious enough. Around the same time of Lieber’s arrest, two Chinese nationals were also “arrested.” One is “at large” in China, the other has been detained.
Yanqing Ye lied on her J-1 visa application. She said she was a student. In reality, she is a Lieutenant of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and a member of the Chinese Communist party. While in this country, Ye “had accessed U.S. military websites, researched U.S. military projects and compiled information… on two U.S. scientists with expertise in robotics and computer science.”
As for the second national Zaosong Zheng, he entered the U.S. on a J-1 visa to conduct cancer-cell research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He ultimately stole 21 vials of biological research and “attempted to smuggle them out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China.”
Do Lieber and the two charged Chinese nationals know one another? Apparently not, and therein lies a major problem. The boundaries between science, intellectual property theft and ethics are becoming increasingly porous. The Chinese nationals are most obviously spies; ostensibly Lieber is simply a well-paid scientists who saw an opportunity.
The amount of money China has spent to attract foreign talent has created a need within the hearts of people, and the need can lead to fraud. Charles Lieber should have known better. Despite his vast education, he was tempted to commit fraud and to lie to the same institution (Harvard) that gave him a world renown platform.
He never told Harvard about his association with the “Thousand Talents Plan.” He certainly never reported it to the NIH or the Department of Defense. Why not? Perhaps he rationalized he was the smartest guy in the room, and that he and his Chinese benefactors knew better than the U.S. Government and Harvard.
Lieber has fallen prey to unethical behavior. He follows in the footsteps of many other unethical people who fail to see the consequences of their choices.
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