American Professor Arrested Over Ties To Chineses Government

A Professor from Texas A&M was arrested for concealing ties he had to the Chinese government while accepting federal grants. As tensions between the US and China rise and concerns over the influence the country has over American institutions grow, incidents like this are sure to add fuel to the fire. More from The Daily Caller:

Zhengdong Cheng, 53, was arrested Sunday and charged with conspiracy, making false statements and wire fraud after allegedly lying over the course of several years about his ties with Chinese-owned universities and companies while accepting NASA funding, the statement says.

Cheng allegedly led a team conducting research for NASA, which has funding terms that forbid affiliations with any Chinese-owned entities. Cheng is named as a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M, as of Monday, and has two Chinese universities listed as his educational background prior to attending Princeton University. He is alleged to have hidden ties with Guangdong University in China, among others.

While accepting funds, Cheng allegedly had access to NASA resources like the International Space Station. He also participated in the People’s Republic of China Talents program, also known as the Thousand Talents Program, a Chinese-government talent recruitment program that in some cases has resulted in violations of U.S law, including espionage, theft of trade secrets and grant fraud and is designed to recruit high-level scientific talent to benefit China’s development and national security.

China has been taking a lot of hits recently over the ongoing accusations fo spying, data theft, and intellectual property theft. It has been no secret that China has used American institutions to steal American secrets, this has been an issue many have discussed over the past few years but it has taken new life due to the ongoing trade war and the Trump administration stepping in to remove Chinese software that is sending data back to China(This includes pas like TikTok and WeChat).

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