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Why the US border remains ‘a place of terror’ for Chinese researchers

Two years after the end of the controversial China Initiative, academics describe being treated like spies, a loss of talent and a chilling atmosphere that is stifling science.
  1. Virginia Gewin

    1. Virginia Gewin is a freelance reporter in Portland, Oregon.

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When an engineer of Chinese descent, who wishes to remain anonymous, took a flight back to his US university from a conference in Canada in September last year, he got a surprise at a stopover in Chicago, Illinois. The captain asked everyone to show their passports to border agents at the gate. The engineer, who has a Chinese passport and a green card to live and work permanently in the United States, estimates that he was detained for 90 minutes, and was asked to share his phone and laptop passwords or surrender his devices. He recalls being asked about his research, collaborations and recent publications with Chinese colleagues, and whether any of technologies they worked on were being transferred anywhere else.

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Nature 626, 1149-1151 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00546-2

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