US investigations of Chinese scientists expand focus to military ties

Authorities in the United States increase scrutiny of Chinese researchers’ background, causing concern about unfair accusations.
By
  1. Nidhi Subbaraman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

When cancer researcher Juan Tang took refuge from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco in July, she drew national attention. Days later, the FBI arrested Tang — a Chinese national who was on a months-long research assignment in the United States — on charges of concealing her role as a Chinese military officer from the US government. Tang has since entered a not-guilty plea and, as of early September, is in custody in California, though her team of attorneys is arguing for her to be released while she awaits a jury trial.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 585, 170-171 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02515-x

Additional reporting by Richard van Noorden.

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 04 September 2020: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Glenn Tiffert is a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution. He recently became a research fellow at the institution.

  • Clarification 09 September 2020: This story was updated to make clear that Digital Science, which owns the Dimensions database that Nature used in its analysis, is part of Holtzbrinck, the majority shareholder in Nature's publisher, Springer Nature.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing