From collaboration to collusion

An image showing Charles Lieber

Source: © onathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

The US government’s crackdown on academics not declaring Chinese funding highlights a moral hazard

Many readers will remember the arrest several months ago of Charles Leiber, head of chemistry at Harvard University, US, over his undisclosed ties to the Chinese government’s ‘Thousand Talents’ programme. Lieber’s case, and those that have followed, made worldwide headlines and brought a sudden burst of attention to the relationships between the Chinese government and foreign academic research labs. And those relationships are worth examining.