Why the spectre of another Trump term haunts China-born scientists in the US

Chinese-American researchers worry that if Donald Trump returns to the White House he could revive the China Initiative

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Published: 6:00am, 13 Aug 2024Updated: 6:04am, 13 Aug 2024

Franklin Tao, a former chemical engineer at the University of Kansas, is finally a free man. After five years of legal battles, he was cleared of all convictions related to the China Initiative, a programme launched in 2018 by then-president Donald Trump to counter alleged Chinese economic espionage.

Following the court ruling on July 11, which also closed the last legal case against university academics under the controversial programme, Tao spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest.

He told reporters that he had lived every one of the 1,786 days since his initial arrest “with fear and desperation”.

“Dr Tao is grateful that this long nightmare is finally over,” his lawyer Peter Zeidenberg said.

However, Tao’s relief – and that of many others whose lives were shattered by the China Initiative – might be short-lived. The programme, which was formally ended by the Biden administration in 2022, could be revived if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November.

Project 2025, a nearly 900-page report drafted by Trump’s former senior officials and seen as a blueprint for the next Republican president, explicitly recommends that his administration “restart the China Initiative”.

Over the past month, the South China Morning Post has contacted a dozen Chinese researchers working in the US to gauge their thoughts on how a potential Trump comeback might affect their lives and work. None agreed to speak, even anonymously.