Academia reacts to professors’ firings

Emory University's recent decision to terminate two Chinese-American professors has increased concerns among researchers and administrators at US universities, amid ongoing tensions between China and the US.

In a statement published on Science magazine's website, Li Xiaojiang, a veteran neuroscientist at the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University School of Medicine who had been working there for 23 years, said he "was shocked that Emory University would terminate a tenured professor in such an unusual and abrupt fashion and close our combined lab consisting of a number of graduates and postdoctoral trainees without giving me specific details for the reasons behind my termination".

The Atlanta-based private university said in a statement that the decision came after the university's investigation, prompted by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) inquiry, revealed "that two of its faculty members named as key personnel on NIH grant awards to Emory University had failed to fully disclose foreign sources of research funding and the extent of their work for research institutions and universities in China".

Although the university didn't identify the former staffers, Science magazine has identified the scientists as Li and his wife Li Shihua — both US citizens and both professors of biology.

The university fired the couple on May 16 when the Lis were traveling in China. It also closed a laboratory jointly led by the Lis and told four Chinese postdoctoral students who worked at the lab to leave the US in 30 days, according to Li's statement.

The action came after the NIH, the main funding source for biomedical and public health research in the US, sent a letter to more than 10,000 academic research universities last August that urged institutions to work with the NIH and other agencies, including the FBI, to crack down on foreign influence.

Recipients of US federal funds have to disclose if they are receiving funds from other countries and are not permitted to share their grant applications with foreign governments.

In April, NIH Director Francis Collins told a Senate committee that the agency was investigating NIH-funded foreign scientists at more than 55 US institutions, according to Science.

However, Li said he "has disclosed my Chinese research activity to Emory University each year since 2012", adding that he has provided documents requested by the university during the investigation of his research activities in China since November 2018.

Li also noted that he had not received "any copy of the investigation that was sent to NIH by Emory, though I have requested Emory to give it to me".

The Lis also said in the statement that they feel that their experience is part of a larger problem with the way foreigners are treated, adding that Emory's action "negatively derides Emory faculty members and international visitors, especially those of Chinese origin".

They urged the university's president to "recognize the contributions of Emory's diverse global community, and the enumerable benefit to science, research and education locally and globally".

Emory's statement said that the university "remains committed to the free exchange of ideas and research and to our vital collaborations with researchers from around the world. At the same time, Emory also takes very seriously its obligation to be a good steward of federal research dollars and to ensure compliance with all funding disclosure and other requirements."

Yale University President Peter Salovey said in an open letter sent to students and faculty last week as Emory terminated the two professors, "In recent weeks, tensions in United States-China relations and increased scrutiny of academic exchanges have added to a sense of unease among many international students and scholars here at Yale and at universities across the country."

Salovey affirmed the Ivy League school's "steadfast commitment" to its foreign talent and said, "openness — a key to the extraordinary success of America's great research universities — must remain a hallmark of Yale".

"Scientific progress has long been based on the open exchange of ideas," Frank H. Wu, chairman of the Committee of 100, a non-profit leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans, told China Daily.

Personnel and cultural exchange "should not be politicized and interfered with," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday.

"This is inconsistent with the aspirations of the two peoples and has caused widespread concern among the academic circles of China and the United States and all sectors of society," Lu said.