A similar version has been posted on China-US Focus.
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The
recently concluded (non)case of the government vs. Dr. Bo Jiang bore a striking
resemblance to the scandalous Wen Ho Lee affair that occurred in 1999 and
strongly suggests that racial profiling and bigotry is still alive and well, at
least in Virginia.
On
March 16, Dr. Bo Jiang, a citizen of China boarded a plane at Dulles
International bound for Beijing. He was accosted and escorted off the plane by
FBI agents, put in jail and charged with lying to the law enforcement officials
and possible violations of Arms Export Control Act.
About
7 weeks later, on May 3, the prosecution dropped all charges against Dr. Jiang.
But before he was allowed to leave the US for Chengdu China he had to plead to
a misdemeanor charge of “misuse of government equipment” in exchange for time
already served in jail. The plea was so the government did not have to admit
that they made a mistake.
In
1999, Dr. Lee, the then Los Alamos scientist, was accused of being a spy for
China by the New York Times, fingered by then Energy Secretary Bill Richardson,
thrown into solitary confinement for ten months. Lee was then released with an
apology from the presiding judge for prosecutorial misconduct.
In
the most recent case, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) was instrumental in the
arrest of Jiang and he was quite proud of his role as the self-appointed spy
catcher. After Jiang’s arrest, the
Congressman held a press conference on March 18 and issued a press release in
praise of his own role in this affair.
Wolf
is a well-known, long time critic of Peoples’ Republic of China. On March 7, he held a press conference
expressing alarm at security violations at NASA-Langley. According to him,
anonymous whistleblowers had told him of a Chinese national with unauthorized
access to NASA’s secrets.
Wolf
on March 7 already knew about Jiang but was setting the stage for the drama to
come. He did say, “It is my understanding that this Chinese national is
affiliated with an institution in China that has been designated as an ‘entity
of concern’ by other U.S. government agencies.”
At
the March 18 conference, Wolf revealed that Jiang was “trying the leave the
country on a one-way ticket.” At the airport, the federal agents had asked what
electronic media he had with him. Jiang admitted that he had a cellphone, a
memory stick, an external hard drive and a new computer. A search of his
luggage found other media items not mentioned by Jiang and that discrepancy too
became grounds for suspicion.
At this
point, Jiang could have explained that his work visa in the US was expiring and
his contract was not being renewed. He bought a one-way ticket back to China
because he wasn’t planning to come back. There was nothing sudden about his flight
to Beijing.
He
could have pointed out that the work he did as a NASA contractor was unrelated
to national security and he had no access to data and technology related to
national security.
But
no one was interested in what the suspect had to say. Fortunately for Jiang, he
then got a break. The court appointed Fernando Groene as his defense counsel. An experienced former federal prosecutor,
Gorene accepted the appointment because he was outraged by the injustice of Jiang’s
case.
“It’s
all about a witch hunt,” he said to the media shortly after taking the case. The
mills of justice ground on for a few more weeks before the prosecution confirmed
that Jiang had been telling the truth, namely his computers contained no data
or files that violated national security regulations.
Groene
was quick to praise the prosecution for being fair minded after seeing that
they had no case. Of course, this did not mean that Jiang received an apology
from Wolf, FBI or anyone representing the federal government.
He experienced
first hand the adage, “you can’t fight city hall.” Jiang had to accept a guilty
plea to a misdemeanor charge for the time served—a misdemeanor of misusing
government equipment that most federal employees would also have been found guilty
of.
There
were, of course, no offers of compensation for his 7 weeks of incarceration or damages
to his reputation, dignity and personal privacy.
After
the case was over and Jiang had gone back to China, attorney Groene gave
additional color surrounding this case.
NASA
could hardly ignore the agitation from the Congressman with the power of funding
oversight. In response, NASA had earlier
conducted an internal investigation of the allegations against Jiang and found
no substantiation. This was duly reported back to Wolf but he would hear none of
it.
A
dissatisfied Wolf then wrote letters on March 13 to the US Attorney’s office
and FBI insisting that they investigate further, leading to the ensuing fiasco
Jiang’s
implied sinister connection with an “entity of concern” alluded by Wolf was
apparently the school in Chengdu Jiang attended for undergraduate training.
Groene pointed out that the Chengdu school had a sister college relationship
with the College of William & Mary and the president of William & Mary
is none other than Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense in Bush and Obama
administrations.
If
anyone has violated federal regulations, Groene concluded, it was Congressman
Wolf for disclosing confidential personal information on his website.
Groene
is a naturalized American citizen from Cuba. He is proud to be an American and
grateful to be in the land of opportunities but he is concerned over the
erosion of our civil liberties as exemplified by the arbitrary law enforcement
action against Jiang.
There
are other conclusions to be drawn from this latest case of racial profiling
against ethnic Chinese.
Obviously
the US does not have enough scientists that can meet the requirements for
security clearances and are thus qualified to do work involving national
security. To get around this problem, Government agencies such as NASA have
been parceling out work that are unrelated to national security to contractors who
can hire scientists that do not hold security clearances. This was the case
with Jiang, a Chinese citizen without permanent resident status.
Such
a separation obviously does not satisfy Congressman Wolf and his ilk and thus Bo
Jiang becomes a cautionary tale for any ethnic Chinese scientists working in the
US.
Whether
it’s in Silicon Valley, universities, government laboratories or major
corporations, if you are ethnic Chinese, not only your conduct has to be absolutely
law abiding, you also have to stay as far away as possible from being tainted
by any hint of wrongdoing. Others might routinely “misuse” government equipment
but not you if you’re Chinese.
During
the Wen Ho Lee era, John Deutsch was the then head of CIA. He was reprimanded
for routinely downloading confidential files to his laptop and regularly taking
it home--a clear case of violating government regulations and gross misuse of
government equipment. But he was not ethnic Chinese and therefore he did not
have to cop a plea nor spend a day in jail.
Contrary to popular myth, justice in America is not
blind but is on the side of the government. Even if you are innocent, once
arrested you are in trouble. As Wen Ho Lee demonstrated then and Jiang now,
downloading while Chinese can be dangerous to your wellbeing.
