The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced the end of the controversial "China Initiative," a Trump-era program aimed at combating so-called foreign threats of security and technology which critics said was racially biased and led to prosecutorial overreach.

Matt Olsen, the assistant attorney general for the National Security Division said that "we are no longer going to have a China Initiative," citing growing criticism from members of Congress. "But in particular, it came from the scientific and academic community, as well as from the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community."

In a speech at George Mason University, Olsen said his department's months-long review found no evidence that federal prosecutors lowered their standards for people with ties to China. The program not only added to the racial discrimination, but also discouraged talented scientists from studying and doing research in the United States. 

The move is a recognition that the U.S. Justice Department, instead of focusing on China, will take broader approaches to protect national interests, and will no longer categorizing those investigations under the "China Initiative" label, Olsen added.

The controversial 'China Initiative'

The Trump administration started the "China Initiative" in November 2018, targeting leaks of technological and other sensitive information, where universities were identified as particularly leaky and vulnerable.

As it gained momentum, however, cases were increasingly brought not on espionage or trade secrets grounds, which face a higher burden of proof, but for paperwork violations in grant applications. And sometimes papers, which academics were accused of leaking, were openly available in academic journals.

Civil rights groups said the department's effort amounted to racial profiling against Asian Americans and helped fuel a narrative of intolerance and bias against Asian Americans at a time when attacks and hate crimes targeting Asians in the U.S. were already skyrocketing. 

Asian-American groups echoed by saying that the initiative has tarnished long-nurtured academic reputations, derailed careers and led to inordinate stress. Universities also reacted differently when their employees were indicted. Some quickly fired professors and distanced themselves.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for example, supported its mechanical engineer and nanotechnologist Gang Chen by launching petitions and lent financial support for his legal defense.

As the number of cases involving paperwork infractions grew, so too did the number of those cleared of charges, along with increased criticism and calls for reform.

Among those acquitted were Anming Hu, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville biomedical associate professor. This is a major turning point which ended when a federal judge acquitted him after a jury declared a mistrial.

One of the jurors, Wendy Chandler, said she kept looking for a big reveal but ultimately characterized the trial as "the most ridiculous case" and the charges against Hu as a series of plausible errors, a lack of support from the university and ruthless ambition on behalf of the FBI.