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US House looks to revive China Initiative to ‘maintain America’s competitive edge’

Victim of original China Initiative, Gang Chen, says programme was ‘ultimately weakening, not strengthening, our national security’

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Gang Chen, a Chinese-born mechanical engineer and nanotechnology expert at MIT, was arrested in 2021 under the China Initiative. US prosecutors dropped the charges in 2022. Photo: MIT
Ling Xinin Ohio
The US House is poised to advance a key spending bill that could revive the controversial “China Initiative” – a programme that unfairly targeted Chinese-American researchers, derailed careers and devastated lives long after it was ended in 2022.

The Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill does not name the programme directly, but language in the accompanying report calls for its re-establishment to “maintain America’s competitive edge” and “counter China’s malign ambitions to steal American research”.

A scheduled committee meeting to debate the bill was cancelled on Wednesday, but experts said the provision was likely to remain as the legislation moved towards the Senate.

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Originally launched in 2018 to combat alleged economic espionage, the China Initiative was widely criticised as racially biased and ineffective. The Department of Justice officially shut it down following a series of failed prosecutions and mounting backlash from the scientific community.

“As a victim of the past China Initiative, I am disheartened by ongoing efforts in Congress to reinstate the misguided programme,” said Gang Chen, a mechanical engineer at MIT who was arrested in 2021 before all charges were dropped.
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