A professor in Houston told China Daily on the condition of anonymity that it is “unfortunate that the China Initiative turned out to be a government-sanctioned persecution of people of Chinese heritage”.
The professor said the federal government was wrong to prosecute people primarily based on race. “It is not a surprise that such a practice has created fear in the community.”
An analysis by Race, Racism and the Law, a civil rights group, concluded that of the 148 defendants across 77 cases in the FBI database, 130 defendants were of Chinese descent.
Only 25 percent of them were convicted, and few of the convictions were related to espionage. The conviction rate was dramatically lower than the Justice Department’s 91 percent overall conviction rate.
In June, Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that while the U.S. still spends more money than any country on research and development, China is set to soon outpace such investment.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 