Two members of Congress have demanded an explanation from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over possible Chinese intellectual property theft at U.S.-funded medical research institutions.
Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) have launched an investigation into the NIH’s handling of cases of scientists who were recipients of U.S. grants but failed to disclose their ties to the Chinese communist regime.
In August 2018, “the NIH launched investigations into 250 NIH researchers with suspicious foreign ties,” the letter stated, referencing Lauer’s interview.
One way to identify scientists with ties to the Chinese regime was to check if they list their dual affiliation when publishing scientific papers, and scrutinizing those who list their Chinese affiliation first, Lauer said.
The NIH investigation uncovered five cases of researchers sending confidential information to China at just one research center, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas.
One scientist sent confidential research data to China “in exchange for $75,000 and a one-year appointment under China’s TTP. Another scientist from the same institution offered to smuggle research materials to China, “(if I can figure out how to get a dozen of frozen DNA onto an airplane),” the letter says.
Both congressmen said that the best way to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s espionage is to remove wrongdoers, and commended the NIH for their investigations.
The report also provided case studies of individuals who maintained undisclosed ties to institutions directed by the Chinese Communist Party. Among them were two scientists, one working for a U.S. medical school, the second for a U.S. medical research institution, both of whom received NIH funding. But they did not disclose that they were also professors at Chinese universities and both received grants from the National Science Foundation of China.
The report includes seven such cases, “all of which involve a researcher failing to disclose a financial or contractual relationship with the Chinese government,” lawmakers said in the letter. “But none of the case studies resulted in immediate, decisive disciplinary actions by NIH.”
The NIH identified more than 130 individuals who were suspected of not disclosing “foreign funding,” and determined that administrative action was needed for 66 of them. “But in most cases, the NIH took no action,” the letter said.