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Biden DOJ Shuts Down Trump-Era ‘China Initiative’ to Counter Chinese Espionage

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would be ending a Trump-era program known as the “China Initiative,” which intended to crack down on Chinese espionage efforts within the United States.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the Biden DOJ decided to end the program after coming to an agreement with a coalition of Asian-American advocacy groups that believed the initiative to be “racist.” The initiative was first created by the Trump Administration in 2018, under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, during his announcement of the termination of the China Initiative, declared that it would be replaced with the “Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats,” which he claimed would focus more specifically on espionage coming directly from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“We are focused on the actions of the PRC government, the Chinese Communist Party, and their agents — not the Chinese people or those of Chinese descent,” Olsen said, claiming without evidence that the Trump-era China Initiative “disproportionately” targeted Chinese citizens based on their ethnicity rather than their ties to China.

At the press conference announcing the decision, held at George Mason University, Olsen admitted that the Biden Administration caved to pressure from the so-called “civil rights community” over the initiative, which they baselessly claimed “fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias.” But when questioned by reporters, Olsen refused to name any specific groups that had such complaints.

The decision comes even despite the China Initiative’s success in outing multiple suspects in positions of prominence who were confirmed to have Chinese ties that directly impacted their rhetoric on China. Among them was a Harvard professor named Charles Lieber, who was convicted in December of failing to disclose the financial support he was receiving from Chinese entities. The DOJ website listed eight other instances of the initiative successfully taking down similar culprits, who engaged in such practices as sharing trade secrets, lying on government grant applications, economic espionage, and other crimes against America.

 

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About Eric Lendrum

Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.

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