U.S. media revealed a recently unsealed FBI document stating that Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S. and a Chinese diplomat in New York have been secretly helping to recruit scientists in the U.S. to work in China.
The FBI accused a Yale University scientist of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This scientist secretly transferred research from a top U.S. academic institution to China, and is suspected of being part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Thousand Talents Plan”—a plan implemented by the Chinese Communist Party to attract high-tech talent from overseas with generous remuneration packages.
The FBI alleged that the scientist in question has been traveling between the U.S. and China, attempting to recruit high-level talent in fields such as molecular genetics and stem cell research, to work at universities or research labs controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and to leak U.S. research results to the Chinese Communist Party. The FBI suspects that the Chinese Communist Party government officials ordered the scientist to recruit people in the United States.
This scientist was one of the opening keynote speakers at a recent science conference sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party in Boston, which an ambassador to the United States, a diplomat in New York, and other Chinese officials also attended, and where recruits were sought.