![]() The NIH said in June that it had investigated 189 researchers who might have violated grant or institutional rules on research integrity. Of these researchers, 93% had ties to China and 82% were of Asian extraction. And in the past two months, four researchers from China working in the United States have been charged with visa fraud for allegedly failing to declare links to China’s military, marking a new chapter in US-China science relations. The latest arrests are another example of the US government cracking down on Chinese scholars, part of a pattern of actions that have created a fearful atmosphere and made researchers think about leaving, says Jessica Chen, an immigration lawyer in Houston, Texas, who has been contacted by researchers for immigration issues. “This creates a truly oppressive environment in which to try to perform research.” People cannot focus on their work when they are concerned that they might be investigated or accused of spying, says Chen. Several scientists who spoke to Nature say they know of researchers with Chinese backgrounds who have left the US because they felt nervous or unsafe. Alice Huang, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and vice-president of the 80-20 Educational Foundation, an advocacy group for Asian American equality, says she knows of about four researchers of Chinese descent who were US citizens and have left the country in the past two years. ![]() ![]() Some left because they felt they were being targeted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or NIH, or feared being investigated by them. But she thinks the numbers of researchers leaving the US are far greater than the cases she’s heard about. ![]()
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