ARLINGTON, Virginia. — The Justice Department said Wednesday it is ending controversial Trump-era efforts to combat threats to China’s national security that critics say have unfairly targeted Asian professors.
Senior Justice Department official Matthew G. Olsen said in a speech at George Mason University’s National Security Institute that the agency will instead introduce a broader strategy designed to counter threats from hostile nations that would go beyond China and include countries like Russia. , Iran. and North Korea.
“By grouping the cases under the rubric of China Initiative,” Mr. Olsen said, “we have helped create a harmful perception that the Department has a lower standard for investigating and prosecuting criminal acts related to this country, or that we are somehow We then view people as having racial, ethnic, or familial ties to China in different ways.”
The end of the program means the Justice Department will drop the name “China Initiative” and set a higher bar for prosecuting scientists and researchers who lie to the government about Chinese affiliation.
The move comes a year after civil rights activists, business groups and universities first voiced the Biden administration’s concern that the program was freezing scientific research and fueling anti-Asian sentiment.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland personally called some of those lawyers on Wednesday to brief them on the changes, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity, to reveal details of those calls.
But the end of the initiative does not mean that Beijing no longer poses a major national security threat. The Chinese government continues to use spies, cyberhacking, intellectual property theft, and propaganda to challenge the position of the United States as the preeminent economic and military power in the world, and this activity is getting more acute.
A more “comprehensive approach” addresses the alarming rise in illicit activity from other hostile nations, Mr. Olsen said, reflecting the fact that “there is no threat unique to a single adversary.”
Among the cases brought by the Ministry of Justice are attempts by the governments of China, Iran and Belarus to punish dissidents abroad. He exposed attempts by Russia, China, Malaysia, and Pakistan to use clandestine influence to undermine American political discourse. And he has indicted hackers who ran malicious cyber campaigns on behalf of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
However, Mr. Olsen noted that Beijing’s incursions were more brazen and destructive because they posed a national security threat that “stands alone.”
The China Initiative was established in 2018 to address these dangers by bringing together cases of espionage, theft of trade secrets and cybercrime under a single flag. In some ways, this was a continuation of efforts made under the Bush and Obama administrations.
But civil rights leaders and members of Congress have been outraged by the name “China Initiative,” which they say stoked intolerance and prejudice against Asian Americans at a time when hate crimes against Asians were on the rise.
And the work of the initiative to fight espionage, theft and computer hacking has been overshadowed by prosecutions that have been brought against scientists who did not disclose the fact that they had financial or other ties to Chinese institutions when they applied for federal government grants. The persecution was intended to keep people from hiding foreign affiliations and prompted schools and researchers to introduce stricter disclosure policies.
Certain cases resulted in convictions, including Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber in December. But the Justice Department has lost or dropped several such cases, prompting critics to say that all Asian professors working in the United States have been unfairly targeted and obstructed research and academic collaboration.
In one loud failure, the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges against Gang Chenprofessor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after the Department of Energy said his undisclosed connection to China would not affect his grant application.
Shortly after taking office in October, Mr. Olsen began a three-month review of the China Initiative, which included interviews with the FBI and other intelligence agencies, research agencies, academic institutions, representatives of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and members of Congress.
His decision to drop the name of the initiative and return China-related national security affairs to the overall mission of the National Security Division reflects these criticisms.
“We have heard concerns from the civil rights community that the China Initiative is fueling a narrative of bigotry and bias,” Mr. Olsen said. “For many, this narrative suggests that the Justice Department treats people of Chinese or Chinese ancestry differently.”
Mr. Olsen said his review found no bias or prejudice in grant fraud cases. “In the course of my review, I have never seen any indication that any decision taken by the Department of Justice was based on bias or prejudice of any kind.”
But he said he shares the concern that these cases and the initiative more broadly have given rise to an impression of biased treatment.
Going forward, the department will use all of its enforcement tools, including civil suits, to fight possible grant fraud. He said the department would spare defendants who appeared to pose a threat to national security from prosecution. He declined to discuss what would happen to pending grant fraud cases.
Some Republicans have criticized the changes, saying they indicate the Biden administration will not effectively counter the Chinese government’s aggression, despite Mr. Olsen’s pledge to continue doing so.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, Arkansas, said the Biden administration canceled the initiative “because they think it’s racist” but that the Chinese government “turned students and researchers studying in the United States into foreign spies.”
Representative Judy Chu, a California Democrat who is one of several lawmakers who have pushed for the Justice Department to amend the initiative, welcomed the changes. The program, she said, encouraged racial profiling and reinforced the stereotype that Asian Americans were “perpetual strangers” who could not be trusted.
“The Chinese initiative will be remembered not for any success in curbing espionage, but rather for having ruined careers and discouraged many Asian Americans from pursuing careers in STEM fields out of fear that they, too, would be targeted,” said Ms. Ms. Chu in her speech. statement.
“By focusing solely on China, despite constant threats from countries like Iran and Russia, this initiative has presented China as a unique existential threat to the US, which we know has led to more violence,” she said.