
U.S. Drops Charges That Professor Shared Technology With China - el_benhameen
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/us/politics/us-drops-charges-that-professor-shared-technology-with-china.html
======
hackuser
The key point of the article: The government discovered that the head of
Temple's physics department had transferred to China schematics for a 'pocket
heater', which is used for semiconductor research and for which he had signed
some sort of NDA (I don't know with whom). The FBI arrested him, handcuffed
him, led him away; and the U.S. attorney charged him. You can imagine the
effect on his job, reputation, etc. We pick up the story here:

 _But months later, long after federal agents had led Dr. Xi away in
handcuffs, independent experts discovered something wrong with the evidence at
the heart of the Justice Department’s case: The blueprints were not for a
pocket heater.

Faced with sworn statements from leading scientists, including an inventor of
the pocket heater, the Justice Department on Friday afternoon dropped all
charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen._

My concern is, do heads roll at the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office after a
failure like that? Is there accountability?

~~~
smtddr
_> >My concern is, do heads roll at the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office after a
failure like that? Is there accountability?_

There should be a minimum $500k USD awarded to anyone who's arrested by USgov
but then found innocent. Of course the problem this will cause is that if
USgov arrests you... they will try their hardest to find any kind of violation
on you. And as we know, the law is so complicated that chances are if USgov
looks hard enough they can find dirt on anyone. So... as much as I wish they
were held accountible, the pain they'd put you through to make sure they're
not found in the wrong makes me hesitant to levy anything on them.

I want it to be much easier for them to admit being wrong than going forward
with pressing charges.

~~~
jrs235
"Of course the problem this will cause is that if USgov arrests you... they
will try their hardest to find any kind of violation on you."

No the problem with that is tax payers are punished for shitty government
official decisions. The officers and officials don't have to pay, they have
"endless" funds. Individual actors need to be held accountable. The DoJ is now
focusing on criminally charging executives at companies, not just the
companies themselves, for breaking laws. Government officers and officials
should also be held accountable.

~~~
MaulingMonkey
> No the problem with that is tax payers are punished for shitty government
> official decisions.

Which would hopefully motivate the tax payer to hold their government
officials accountable while helping restore those harmed. Hopefully...

> Individual actors need to be held accountable.

Agreed.

------
gluejar
I used to work in the same research field as Xi. A very nice guy, did some
very excellent work. It's outrageous what's happened to him.

You might be asking, what's the FBI looking at his emails for?

So here's a random fact. Xi was a Professor of Physics and Materials Science
and Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University up to 2009. Guess who was
a graduate student in the Materials Science and Engineering at the
Pennsylvania State University from 2006 to 2008, had Xi on his thesis
committee, and attracted a huge amount of attention from the FBI. Yep. Ross
Ulrecht.
[https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/paper/9710/4335](https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/paper/9710/4335)
The idiots at the FBI must have been looking for Chinese links to Silk Road!
Because isn't that in China?

~~~
gluejar
Statement by Professor Xi on the Dismissal of the Federal Indictment and Legal
Defense Fund [http://www.xiaoxingxi.org/](http://www.xiaoxingxi.org/)

------
cantrevealname
So many obvious questions are unanswered in the article:

1\. What does a pocket heater do in general terms? (Saying that it has
something to do with "coating one substance with a very thin film of another"
is pretty thin.)

2\. Why did they target him, and how did they get his emails?

3\. So the blueprints weren't of a pocket heater. Then what were they
blueprints of?

The story would be much better if they explained those. If the New York Times
doesn't know, they should at least say something like, "We asked the
prosecutors, but they refused to tell us".

~~~
natch
Yes unanswered, and as you suggest later, even unasked... if even the NYT is
this pathetic then that just underscores that journalism is still ripe for
disruption.

Also it's bizarre they don't mention the case of Wen-Ho Lee, who earlier
became a scapegoat for leaks at US nuclear sites, in part due to shoddy
reporting by the NYT itself, which they later unwound in a still misstatement-
ridden long article: [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/us/the-making-of-a-
suspect...](http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/us/the-making-of-a-suspect-the-
case-of-wen-ho-lee.html)

/vent

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> * if even the NYT is this pathetic then that just underscores that
> journalism is still ripe for disruption.*

As far as I can tell, "disruption" is about doing things faster, punchier,
shinier, on tighter margins and with a shorter turn-around time. Do you think
that's going to produce _better_ journalism?

There are worse things that the sometimes-slipshod NYT. I'm frightened of what
comes next for journalism.

~~~
natch
Having had a very up-close view of some stories NYT covered, I'd say they are
doing horse-trading with the government in selected cases, where they pull
certain punches in exchange for access. This is the kind of thing I would
expect from them, but not from a player like firstlook.org / The Intercept,
for example. Sure they are a special case because they have some deep pocket
backers, but that's at least one example of better.

------
staunch
> _In Dr. Xi’s case, Mr. Zeidenberg said, the authorities saw emails to
> scientists in China and assumed the worst._

> _About a dozen F.B.I. agents, some with guns drawn, stormed Dr. Xi’s home in
> the Philadelphia suburbs in May, searching his house just after dawn..._

How did they see the emails? Was it mass surveillance or did someone complain
to the FBI?

Arrests based on the mass surveillance of millions of people is far scarier
than arrests based on sincere accusations from concerned citizens.

~~~
zhemao
I'm guessing that since he was a) Chinese-American and b) working on a high-
tech research project involving classified information, the FBI was already
suspicious of him and monitored his email and other communications.

~~~
greglindahl
What classified information? The article says it was "sensitive" and that he
had "signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret". That sounds
like an NDA. How many techies have signed an NDA?

~~~
Beltiras
Everyone? It's been boilerplate text in my last 3 employment contracts.

------
lionspaw
A lot of people are linking past cases that are similar, but let me just link
the biggest one:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen)

The guy went on to lead China's missile and aerospace program, but it was
almost certainly because he had his life destroyed in the US first.

The 50th Secretary of the US navy, Dan Kimball said, "it was the stupidest
thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we
forced him to go."

------
yeukhon
I can understand Temple's decision to put him on leave, but stripping away his
chairman title seems like too far. Either Xi resigns or appoint an interim
chairman until the end of the trial would be a better option IMO. So far, I
haven't seen statement from Temple.

By the way, there is another charge against another Chinese-born U.S.
professor ([http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3227518/Renowned-
U-S...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3227518/Renowned-U-S-
scientist-worked-NASA-Mars-missions-resigns-disappears-FBI-investigates-
suspicions-shared-defence-secrets-China.html)). In this case the "evidences"
so far seems very strong against the professor from the public opinion, at
least raising suspicious. Of course, his fate remains unknown until the court
decides.

------
kelukelugames
Sad part is a lot of Asians go into tech to avoid racism. Joke's on us?

~~~
a3n
I'm white native-born American, so grain of salt.

I don't think this was racism, just fear, ignorance and bureaucracy. We happen
to be in a low-grade technology/security conflict with China at the moment, so
that's where investigators and prosecutors are going to pick up their annual
review points at the moment.

I think the same thing could have happened with a white or Chinese Russian-
American professor.

But maybe not with a white or Chinese Canadian-American professor.

~~~
kelukelugames
Here is a snark free reply.

Yes, there is a logical explanation. Maybe this single incident is just bad
luck. No racism.

I would say the odds are 99% bad luck and 1% racism.

But it isn't the first time a Chinese scientist ran into bad luck. Do you
remember this high profile case?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Ho_Lee#Indictment.2C_impri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Ho_Lee#Indictment.2C_imprisonment_and_release)

Now it's more like 89% bad luck and 11% racism.

There is also strong anti-Asian sentiment in general.

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113236377590902105](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113236377590902105)

[http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Vandalism-hate-crime-
cha...](http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Vandalism-hate-crime-charges-in-
no-more-6497185.php)

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2015/09/10...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2015/09/10/terrorist-go-back-to-your-country-attacker-yelled-in-
alleged-assault-of-sikh-man/)

59% bad luck vs 41% racism.

Not to mention the countless stereotypes.

[http://www.bustle.com/articles/106467-jeb-bush-donald-
trumps...](http://www.bustle.com/articles/106467-jeb-bush-donald-trumps-asian-
remarks-only-reinforce-the-stereotypes-we-should-have-left-behind)

49% vs 51%.

And all of the BS from my co workers, classmates, and random people in public
places. Oh yes, so much ignorant, racist BS. The odds of racism is much
greater now. Because of the racism I have experienced and witnessed, the
benefit of the doubt is rarely deserved.

~~~
bruceb
A few random cases including some older guy who spray paints a few building
with "no Chinese" and then is charged with a felony and held on $200k bail.
Hardly sign of a "racism growing"

~~~
kelukelugames
You are right. Racism is not growing. It has always been this bad. A few
random cases have been happening for years.

And please do not discredit the experience my family, my friends, and I have
been through.

~~~
bruceb
Nothing says racism like a country where Asians earn more than whites or
blacks. 5% of the US is Asian.

Is 5% of China or Japan of European or African decent? No.

This is not to say there is no racism but lets not go overboard.

Saying what you posted doesn't make your case isn't discrediting whatever you
or your family has been through.

~~~
kelukelugames
Yes, racism is much, much worse in other countries. We are probably the best
at handling race issues, but we still have a long ways to go.

What about the Jews? They earn even more therefore anti-semitism must be a
myth. Furthermore, a large percent of 1st and 2nd generation Asian Americans
benefit from class privilege. Ironically class privilege is the first thing
ignorant people turn to when trying to discredit white privilege.

Racism impacts my family, my friends, and me directly. This is not going
overboard. This is another case of ignorant people refusing to believe people
of color. Business as usual.

~~~
bruceb
"What about the Jews? They earn even more therefore anti-semitism must be a
myth."

Why would that be? When did I say there is no racism? Is there anti-semitism
in the US? Sure. But little and inconsequential in the everyday lives of Jews.

------
makecheck
A lot of damage comes from society's tendency to make the following
synonymous: "accused of" = "guilty", "being investigated for" = "guilty", "was
arrested" = "guilty", "currently on trial for" = "guilty", and so on. It
infuriates me how this is done over and over again with the media's help.

For starters it should NOT be public knowledge that someone has been arrested.
Sweep that under the rug, let the trial happen, make it illegal to announce
anything but guilty VERDICTS.

~~~
a3n
Secret trials ensure no protests. The proper solution to this is to not have
these misadventures (as unlikely as that solution is). Personal damage
notwithstanding, society has an _intense_ interest in following justice from
start to finish.

------
kordless
> A spokeswoman for Zane D. Memeger, the United States attorney in
> Philadelphia who brought the charges, did not elaborate on the decision to
> drop the case.

We seriously need to put protections in place that force prosecutors to pay
for the suffering they cause as a result of their efforts.

------
OliverJones
It's obviously political, eh? The US federal government's human resources
tracking IT system is thoroughly pwned by a state actor (according to the
NYT), under the noses of all the black-budget unregulated and expensive
federal police forces.

So those same federal police have to try to show the public they're not
completely impotent. Gosh, we might insist on seeing, and even, cutting, those
bloated black budgets. To prove themselves they go after expatriate
intellectuals from the same state who pwned them.

Blueprints? Really? has anybody seen an actual blueprint machine in the last
generation?

------
01002637764
الواحد مخنوق يارررررررررررررب

------
a3n
I'm sure Xi had nothing to hide.

------
ap22213
This should be an important topic of conversation in technology. Similar to
other real threats to U.S. companies and citizens, Chinese espionage is the
real deal.

It's unfortunate that Mr Xi was caught in the crossfire. But, it's not like he
was held in prison without justice. In this case, the justice system worked
itself out, and Xi was shown to be innocent. He was not, as far as I can tell
from reading the article, deemed guilty until proven innocent. He was
suspected of a crime, the evidence showed that he had not committed a crime,
and the charges were dropped.

But, generally, I think the U.S. is much too lax in its patrolling of Chinese
espionage. Things have been out of control for many years, at least for the
couple decades that I've worked in research and development. Too often, at
conferences and trade shows, have I seen the roving groups of Chinese with
their video cameras and notebooks, blatantly stealing ideas and IP. Several
times, I've witnessed suspicious Chinese citizens coming to work for tech
companies, straight from China, being overly interested in details of IP, then
mysteriously quitting, without a trace. It's a real problem.

~~~
ken47
_" Too often, at conferences and trade shows, have I seen the roving groups of
Chinese with their video cameras and notebooks, blatantly stealing ideas and
IP."_

What in the world? What about the non-Chinese people who take notes and
videotape at conferences? In what America are sensitive national secrets or
company IP put on display at public conferences?

I think most people here are open to rational arguments, but some people try a
little bit too hard to conjure the Chinese bogeyman.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
I have been to conferences where presenters from large US companies ask the
audience to refrain from videotaping/photographing during their presentations.
And I agree the premise is silly, you go to a conference because you have
something to share.

