As a seasoned law enforcement investigator with over 36 years of experience, I am astounded by the evidence-gathering exercise conducted by the FBI and the US attorney in the case against Linda Sun, a Chinese American who has worked in the New York state government for over 15 years. She became deputy chief of staff for then-governor Andrew Cuomo and current Governor Kathy Hochul.
Sun was charged with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, as revealed in a sprawling indictment. However, the indictment fails to provide direct evidence of a corrupt relationship. The only so-called “direct” advantage cited was that a Chinese government official’s private chef had once prepared “Nanjing-style salted ducks” delivered to Sun’s parents’ home. Another alleged advantage was her receipt of tickets to performances by visiting Chinese orchestras and ballet groups. To put it into perspective, the investigation should have disclosed how many other New York officials received tickets to those performances and whether they were regular courtesy exchanges.
The remaining “evidence” appears to be circumstantial. First, prosecutors alleged that Sun had blocked representatives of the Taiwan government from accessing the governor’s office. However, given the US government’s longstanding one-China policy and the three US-China joint communiques prohibiting official communication between US and Taiwan officials, she was merely complying with the law. She is also accused of facilitating a trip to China for a high-level New York politician. What is wrong with that? Wasn’t she simply acting in the public interest to enhance the business relationship between China and New York?
The indictment highlighted an incident in which the New York governor was requested to make a Lunar New Year greeting video. Sun allegedly told another official that she had argued with the speechwriter over the draft because the speechwriter insisted on mentioning the “Uygur situation” in China. She promised that she would not let that happen, and the final speech did not mention the Muslim ethnic minority, according to the indictment. The Lunar New Year video is meant to be a holiday greeting from the New York governor, expressing friendship and cooperation with the Chinese community. Including unfounded criticisms in such a message would be entirely inappropriate. Considering the conventional diplomatic protocol and the two countries’ official stances on bilateral relations, how can such a rules-based approach be construed as favoring the Communist Party of China?
The indictment also suggests that Sun’s husband, Christopher Hu, received benefits from his business activities in China. What is not mentioned is whether Sun had a duty to declare her husband’s business to her office, which I am sure should be the case. If she and her husband made the necessary declarations, the prosecution would face a significant challenge in linking his business profits to “corrupt proceeds”. This situation is not unlike that of many US senators and congresspeople who are multimillionaires; they cannot be indicted simply for benefiting from their private businesses unless there is concrete evidence of abuse of office. In this case, the evidence of such abuse is extremely weak, and no reasonable jury would convict the couple.
This case exemplifies the US administration’s witch hunt against Chinese Americans, a continuation of the Trump administration’s China Initiative, which aimed to root out so-called “Chinese spies” from US universities and research institutes. This program, reminiscent of McCarthyism in the mid-1950s, overwhelmingly targeted academic researchers of Chinese descent — who made up 90 percent of the defendants — creating a climate of fear among Chinese Americans. The US National Institutes of Health, which conducted most of the investigations, revealed that as of June 9, 112 scientists targeted by the initiative — mostly of Chinese descent — lost their jobs due to dismissals or forced retirements for alleged undisclosed links to Beijing.
These government actions have led many Chinese American scientists in research fields to feel targeted and alienated. The resulting atmosphere has led to many living in fear amid increasing violence against those of Asian descent. Hate crime cases targeting the Asian community in the US increased by 76 percent in 2020.
A study conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Harvard University last year found that over one-third of scientists of Chinese descent in the US felt unwelcome, and 72 percent felt unsafe. The survey, titled Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese-American Scientists, pointed to a trend of higher incentives to leave the US and lower incentives to apply for government grants due to fears of potential federal investigations since the launch of the China Initiative. It also warned of a “significant loss of talent” in the US.
Indeed, the exodus of Chinese American scientists has already begun. Guan Kunliang, a genius biochemist, and Fu Xiangdong, an Alzheimer’s disease research expert, in the aftermath of a US investigation on their suspected links with China, took up positions at Westlake University in Hangzhou to continue their research work. Chen Zhoufeng, a leading expert in the study of the itch mechanism, joined an institute in Shenzhen after 33 years in the US. These are just a few examples.
As the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government seeks to build an international talent pool, this presents a golden opportunity to adopt a more proactive strategy to attract these US-based Chinese scientists and researchers to work in Hong Kong, either in universities or research centers. I hope the chief executive will lay out the welcome mat for these exceptional scientists and experts in his forthcoming Policy Address in October.
The author is an honorary fellow of HKU Space and Hong Kong Metropolitan University. He is a former director of operations of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
