The Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” namely the FBI’s campaign to find Chinese “reds under the bed” among visiting Chinese scholars, hit a major roadblock on July 22 when they decided to drop the charges against five Chinese researchers caught up in this sweep. Many of them have been in jail awaiting judicial procedure for almost a year. The FBI is covering its behind by saying that the sentences the accused could have received if convicted is a few months in jail, and, therefore, they have really served their time! But there is obviously more to this story than meets the eye.
There has been a huge outcry among Chinese-American groups about this “profiling” and hysteria in the FBI campaign. Some scholars have even committed suicide because of the pressure. And in one instance, the case of a person who was accused of “conspiring” with the Chinese authorities in his scholarly work was exposed as a total hoax by the FBI agent running the operation, giving the FBI agents plenty of egg on their faces.
