Prosecutors' misplaced fear of scientists

There’s a White House visit in the offing for Ahmed Mohamed, the Sudanese-American teenager whose homemade alarm clock was taken for a bomb at school. But it seems unlikely that the White House will be rushing to make public amends for the now-abandoned prosecution of Xi Xiaoxing, the Chinese-American physics professor at Temple University who was mistakenly charged with sending secret plans for sophisticated research machinery to colleagues in China. That's unfortunate -- because targeting Chinese-American scientists for investigation as the cool war between the U.S. and China heats up is extremely dangerous. Irrational fear of Arabs and Muslims in the post-Sept. 11 era remains a concern, of course. But the emerging new McCarthyism isn't going to be Islamophobic; it's going to be Sinophobic. And it will be more than simply unjust. It’ll deter immigration of the best Chinese scientists to the U.S., which will in turn harm American interests competing with China. Start with the specifics of Xi’s prosecution. You’d think that, unlike the school authorities in Texas who freaked out about a teenager’s invention without bothering examine it, the FBI and the Department of Justice would make a detailed investigation before bringing serious charges against the professor. But it would appear that such confidence in federal law enforcement is misplaced.
The case against Xi was premised on the charge that he disclosed plans for a piece of machinery known as a pocket heater that's used in superconductor research. But the plans Xi had transmitted weren't for the pocket heater at all -- a fact attested by one of the inventors of the contraption. Apparently the U.S. government never checked with anyone familiar with the plans for the actual pocket heater before charging Xi.

Bloomberg

 

Prosecutors misplaced fear of scientists

Theres a White House visit in the offing for Ahmed Mohamed, the Sudanese-American teenager whose homemade alarm clock was taken for a bomb at school. But it seems unlikely that the White House will be rushing to make public amends for the now-abandoned prosecution of Xi Xiaoxing, the Chinese-American physics professor at Temple University who was mistakenly charged with sending secret plans for sophisticated research machinery to colleagues in China. Thats unfortunate -- because targeting Chinese-American scientists for investigation as the cool war between the U.S. and China heats up is extremely dangerous. Irrational fear of Arabs and Muslims in the post-Sept. 11 era remains a concern, of course. But the emerging new McCarthyism isnt going to be Islamophobic; its going to be Sinophobic. And it will be more than simply unjust. Itll deter immigration of the best Chinese scientists to the U.S., which will in turn harm American interests competing with China. Start with the specifics of Xis prosecution. Youd think that, unlike the school authorities in Texas who freaked out about a teenagers invention without bothering examine it, the FBI and the Department of Justice would make a detailed investigation before bringing serious charges against the professor. But it would appear that such confidence in federal law enforcement is misplaced. The case against Xi was premised on the charge that he disclosed plans for a piece of machinery known as a pocket heater thats used in superconductor research. But the plans Xi had transmitted werent for the pocket heater at all -- a fact attested by one of the inventors of the contraption. Apparently the U.S. government never checked with anyone familiar with the plans for the actual pocket heater before charging Xi. Bloomberg