DOJ ending Trump-era 'China Initiative'; national security program fueled Asian 'intolerance, bias'

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is ending a Trump-era national security program known as the "China Initiative," saying the effort aimed at countering the persistent economic espionage threat fostered anti-Asian bias and discouraged U.S. efforts to attract top scientists for critical research across business and academia.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, chief of Justice's National Security Division, announced the move Wednesday, acknowledging longstanding concerns voiced by civil rights advocates that the program's identity had "fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias."

"To many, the narrative suggests that the Justice Department treats people from China or of Chinese descent differently," Olsen said. "The rise in anti-Asian hate crime and hate incidents only heightens these concerns."

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Olsen, in an address to George Mason University's National Security Institute, said the rising concerns for the program were rooted in part in the department's pursuit of fraud involving research grants.

The prosecution of such cases, the assistant attorney general said, can "lead to a chilling atmosphere for scientists and scholars that damages the scientific enterprise in this country."

Olsen said a months-long review of the program "did not find any indication of bias or prejudice in any of the decision-making I've seen by the Department of Justice. Full stop."

Instead of singular focus on the threat posed by China, Olsen said federal authorities would take a "broader" view of nation state adversaries engaged in espionage, intellectual property theft and cyberwarfare, including Russia, North Korea, Iran and China.

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With Russia poised for a larger invasion of Ukraine, the related fears for a spillover of cyberwarfare in the U.S. "highlighted" a need for a restructuring of the Justice strategy.

"We will be relentless in defending our country from China," Olsen said. "But our review convinced us that a new approach is needed to tackle the most severe threats from a range of hostile nation-states."

Olsen did not refer to specific cyber actions the U.S. may face from Russia during its current campaign against Ukraine.

"We're very vigilant and looking for any signs along those lines," he said. "And we know that Russia has got capabilities in those areas, so this is obviously a priority as we sit here today."

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, lauded the Justice action and its acknowledgement of the program's "deep flaws."

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"By starting with a focus on researchers and scientists who are ethnically Chinese, the 'China Initiative' not only engaged in blatant racial profiling, but also reinforced harmful stereotypes that Asian Americans are ‘perpetual others’ who cannot be trusted, ruining numerous lives in the process," Chu said. "With only one conviction since its creation in 2018, the 'China Initiative' will be remembered not for any success at curbing espionage, but rather for ruining careers and discouraging many Asian Americans from pursuing careers in STEM fields out of fear that they too will be targeted."

Chu said the hyper focus on China has only encouraged and prompted "more violence" targeting Asians.

Fellow CAPAC member Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said the initiative was "racist" and "did nothing more than target Chinese Americans based on their ethnicity and racial characteristics." Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said the "actions by the DOJ amounted to targeted racial profiling, which has had a chilling effect on academic freedom and the scientific community."

"There are serious national security concerns facing our country from all across the world, but our response must be based on evidence, not racism and fear," Chu said.

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CAPAC First Vice Chair Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., likewise said the initiative "has only contributed to animosity, suspicion, and bigotry toward Asian American researchers, while also fueling the anti-Asian sentiment caused by scapegoating Asian Americans for the spread of COVID-19."

Linda Ng, president of the AAPI civil rights organization OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates, said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the move, but warned "it cannot be a rebranding exercise and more needs to be done to combat racial profiling."

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, on the other hand, dismissed the move.  

"Today, the Biden administration announced it’s cancelling the initiative tasked with combatting the Chinese government’s unprecedented domestic sabotage and aggression because they claim it’s racist," Cotton said. "Cancelling this initiative is just another instance of weakness from an administration more concerned with being politically correct than protecting Americans. And you can be sure our adversaries are watching.”

The Justice decision comes just weeks after FBI Director Chris Wray renewed a stark assessment of China's efforts to undermine a broad range of American institutions.

Wray, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum, said no country poses a greater threat to the United States than China.

At greatest risk Wray said is U.S. "economic security and our freedoms – our freedom of speech, of conscience, our freedom to elect and be served by our representatives without foreign meddling, our freedom to prosper when we toil and invent."

The FBI director characterized the scope of China's operations as "staggering," adding that the FBI opens a new case involving Chinese economic espionage and theft of intellectual property every 12 hours.

"There's just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation and economic security than China," Wray said.

"Here in the U.S., they unleash a massive, sophisticated hacking program that's bigger than those of every other major country combined," the director said.

"They're not just hacking on a huge scale, but causing indiscriminate damage to get what they want, like in the recent Microsoft Exchange hack, which compromised the networks of more than 10,000 American companies in a single campaign alone," Wray said. 

Olsen said Wednesday that he agreed with the director's assessment.

"And he's absolutely right," Olsen said, referring to Wray. "Make no mistake, we will be absolutely relentless in defending our country from China. Moving forward, I do think it's important that we are responsive to the concerns that we have heard about the initiative."

Contributing: Mike Harris