Teen Vogue Politics The China Initiative: How Chinese Academics Like Xiaoxing Xi Were Falsely Charged as Spies This op-ed explains how Chinese academics have been criminalized in the government’s hunt for Chinese spies working at American universities. BY JOYCE XI DECEMBER 6, 2022 A Department of Justice sign is seen on the wall of the US Department of Justice building in Washington DC on April 18 2019 CHANDAN KHANNA/GETTY IMAGES In October, President Joe Biden named China a top national security threat to the United States. But negative views of China had already reached historic highs in the US in 2020. Politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Biden and Donald Trump, compete to prove who is tougher on China. And as fearmongering about China grows louder, I worry about the everyday people who will be caught in the crossfire. This is not hypothetical for me. I have seen firsthand the harms the US government’s national security fears can cause. In 2015, my father, Temple University physics professor Xiaoxing Xi, was unjustly surveilled and criminalized in the government’s hunt for Chinese spies working at American universities. In the absence of any accountability or vigilance to prevent the continuation of these harms, I fear things will get worse. My family’s story began one early morning in May of that year. Just home from college, I was still asleep when strange voices outside my door abruptly woke me up. Confused and afraid, I stumbled out to flashlights beaming in my eyes, guns pointed, and a group of FBI agents surrounding my family. I saw fear and shock wash over my dad, mom, and sister’s faces as government agents pinned my dad against the wall, handcuffed him, and dragged him away. Agents interrogated my mom and confined me and my little sister in another room for hours. We later found out that they had taken my dad to jail. The Department of Justice was charging him for allegedly sharing technology secrets with people in China. He was being threatened with 80 years in prison and $1 million in fines, and he was painted as a national security threat to the US. Everything felt completely surreal and absurd. Nothing prepares you for the day your dad is accused of being a spy. And that accusation could not be further from the truth. My dad is a nerdy scientist who teaches college students and conducts basic physics research. He never shared any secret technology with contacts in China. Still, FBI agents searched our home and rummaged through our belongings. They even tried to take my sister’s computer — she was 12 at the time. Then the news cameras showed up, trying to film inside our home through the windows. That evening, we watched on local news as the US government declared my father an international spy. As it turned out, the US government was the one doing the spying. We found out later that the FBI, using tools designed to pursue foreign agents, had secretly surveilled my dad’s communications and used his emails about unrelated academic research to try to portray him as a criminal. My family went from living a normal, low-key life to facing the weight of our own government coming after us. Months later, the government’s accusations fell apart and prosecutors dropped the charges. Yet to this day, the government has refused to explain or apologize for what it did. We have been in court for more than five years seeking answers, but still haven’t found out why the FBI targeted my father with surveillance and false criminal charges, saddling us with huge legal fees and many emotional scars. Unfortunately, my dad’s situation is not unique. Two decades ago, Taiwanese American scientist Wen Ho Lee was falsely accused of spying for China and jailed pre-trial in solitary confinement, before the government’s high-profile case collapsed. And over the past several years, US scientists of Chinese descent, including Sherry Chen, Anming Hu, Gang Chen, and others, have endured similar nightmares amid the US crackdown on China. We still don’t know the full extent of the FBI’s surveillance of my family because they won’t tell us. But what I know from the reporting on other cases is that the FBI tailed University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor Anming Hu’s son for more than a year while he was in college. They also followed Taiwanese American scientist Wen Ho Lee’s daughter, with numerous agents tracking her around town and into stores, even approaching neighbors and friends. No young person should have to deal with this. The US government has faced few, if any, consequences for upending people’s lives. Families are left to deal with the lingering fear, trauma, and legal costs on their own. When I send a text or email, I still wonder if I’m being watched. Simple things like recorded Zoom meetings bring up fears of surveillance. I worry the FBI could come after me at any time for some made up reason or if I do any little thing wrong. It might seem irrational, but this is the resulting trauma of surveillance. In times of crisis and fear in this country, we have repeatedly seen people and communities scapegoated in the name of national security, such as WWII, when people of Japanese descent were rounded up in concentration camps, and post-9/11, when many Muslims were unjustly targeted, surveilled, and abused. The FBI’s record of racial, ethnic, and religious profiling has left a devastating trail, affecting extended Muslim, Black, and Indigenous communities too. As tensions between the US and China continue to escalate, we cannot repeat the same mistakes. There is a major human cost to casting suspicion on entire communities based on ethnicity and national origin. And it is wrong. That’s why my family brought a civil rights lawsuit against the government. It’s been seven years since that day in May when the FBI arrested my father. We are now waiting on the court of appeals to decide whether or not our claims can proceed. We hope the court ensures that we can hold the government accountable for its abuses of power. But whatever happens, we deserve answers. We deserve justice. And we all deserve better.
This op-ed explains how Chinese academics have been criminalized in the government’s hunt for Chinese spies working at American universities. BY JOYCE XI
DECEMBER 6, 2022 A Department of Justice sign is seen on the wall of the US Department of Justice building in Washington DC on April 18 2019 CHANDAN KHANNA/GETTY IMAGES In October, President Joe Biden named China a top national security threat to the United States. But negative views of China had already reached historic highs in the US in 2020. Politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Biden and Donald Trump, compete to prove who is tougher on China. And as fearmongering about China grows louder, I worry about the everyday people who will be caught in the crossfire.
This is not hypothetical for me. I have seen firsthand the harms the US government’s national security fears can cause. In 2015, my father, Temple University physics professor Xiaoxing Xi, was unjustly surveilled and criminalized in the government’s hunt for Chinese spies working at American universities. In the absence of any accountability or vigilance to prevent the continuation of these harms, I fear things will get worse.
My family’s story began one early morning in May of that year. Just home from college, I was still asleep when strange voices outside my door abruptly woke me up. Confused and afraid, I stumbled out to flashlights beaming in my eyes, guns pointed, and a group of FBI agents surrounding my family. I saw fear and shock wash over my dad, mom, and sister’s faces as government agents pinned my dad against the wall, handcuffed him, and dragged him away.
Agents interrogated my mom and confined me and my little sister in another room for hours. We later found out that they had taken my dad to jail. The Department of Justice was charging him for allegedly sharing technology secrets with people in China. He was being threatened with 80 years in prison and $1 million in fines, and he was painted as a national security threat to the US.
Everything felt completely surreal and absurd. Nothing prepares you for the day your dad is accused of being a spy. And that accusation could not be further from the truth. My dad is a nerdy scientist who teaches college students and conducts basic physics research. He never shared any secret technology with contacts in China.
Still, FBI agents searched our home and rummaged through our belongings. They even tried to take my sister’s computer — she was 12 at the time. Then the news cameras showed up, trying to film inside our home through the windows. That evening, we watched on local news as the US government declared my father an international spy.
As it turned out, the US government was the one doing the spying. We found out later that the FBI, using tools designed to pursue foreign agents, had secretly surveilled my dad’s communications and used his emails about unrelated academic research to try to portray him as a criminal. My family went from living a normal, low-key life to facing the weight of our own government coming after us.
Months later, the government’s accusations fell apart and prosecutors dropped the charges. Yet to this day, the government has refused to explain or apologize for what it did. We have been in court for more than five years seeking answers, but still haven’t found out why the FBI targeted my father with surveillance and false criminal charges, saddling us with huge legal fees and many emotional scars.
Unfortunately, my dad’s situation is not unique. Two decades ago, Taiwanese American scientist Wen Ho Lee was falsely accused of spying for China and jailed pre-trial in solitary confinement, before the government’s high-profile case collapsed. And over the past several years, US scientists of Chinese descent, including Sherry Chen, Anming Hu, Gang Chen, and others, have endured similar nightmares amid the US crackdown on China.
We still don’t know the full extent of the FBI’s surveillance of my family because they won’t tell us. But what I know from the reporting on other cases is that the FBI tailed University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor Anming Hu’s son for more than a year while he was in college. They also followed Taiwanese American scientist Wen Ho Lee’s daughter, with numerous agents tracking her around town and into stores, even approaching neighbors and friends. No young person should have to deal with this.
The US government has faced few, if any, consequences for upending people’s lives. Families are left to deal with the lingering fear, trauma, and legal costs on their own. When I send a text or email, I still wonder if I’m being watched. Simple things like recorded Zoom meetings bring up fears of surveillance. I worry the FBI could come after me at any time for some made up reason or if I do any little thing wrong. It might seem irrational, but this is the resulting trauma of surveillance.
In times of crisis and fear in this country, we have repeatedly seen people and communities scapegoated in the name of national security, such as WWII, when people of Japanese descent were rounded up in concentration camps, and post-9/11, when many Muslims were unjustly targeted, surveilled, and abused. The FBI’s record of racial, ethnic, and religious profiling has left a devastating trail, affecting extended Muslim, Black, and Indigenous communities too. As tensions between the US and China continue to escalate, we cannot repeat the same mistakes.
There is a major human cost to casting suspicion on entire communities based on ethnicity and national origin. And it is wrong. That’s why my family brought a civil rights lawsuit against the government. It’s been seven years since that day in May when the FBI arrested my father. We are now waiting on the court of appeals to decide whether or not our claims can proceed. We hope the court ensures that we can hold the government accountable for its abuses of power. But whatever happens, we deserve answers. We deserve justice. And we all deserve better.