Live Online Policy Forum 

# The China Initiative: Origins and Consequences 

##### Watch the Event 

Download:

[ 

Video 

](https://fastly-unsigned-us-east-1-prod.brightcovecdn.com/media/v1/pmp4/static/clear/6039378657001/20616022-3f0c-45b9-9f9d-9aaeb8c1f223/9c85d78e-4928-4c3a-a65c-6526e1df1178/main.mp4) 

[ 

Audio 

](https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5e2e15a046f4465f31c89d8c/1639693154929-8ba3371cb238e9df4cd881c95faf6847.mp3) 

Join the conversation on X using [\#CatoEvents](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoEvents). Follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Date and Time 

December 16, 2021 1 - 3 PM EST 

Location 

Live Online 

Share This Event 

##### Featuring 

![Derek Scissors portrait cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-12/derek-scissors.jpg?itok=UgtBkoaE) 

Dr. Derek Scissors 

Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

[ 

](https://twitter.com/DerekScissors1) 

![Jamil N. Jaffer portrait](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-12/jamil-jaffer.jpg?itok=uYRv7oeu) 

Professor Jamil N. Jaffer 

Director of the National Security Law and Policy Program, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

[ 

](https://twitter.com/jamil_n_jaffer) 

![Jeremy Wu portrait cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-12/jeremy-wu.jpg?itok=aSDULHP9) 

Dr. Jeremy Wu 

Founder, APA Justice

[ 

](https://twitter.com/apa_justice) 

![Gisela Kusakawa portrait cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-12/gisela-kusakawa.jpg?itok=DIL4d9za) 

Gisela Kusakawa 

Staff Attorney, Anti-Racial Profiling Project and Immigration, Asian Americans Advancing Justice

[ 

](https://twitter.com/gkusakawa) 

[![Patrick G. Eddington](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Patrick%20Eddington.jpg?itok=ddIWrIm5)](/people/patrick-g-eddington) 

[Patrick G. Eddington](/people/patrick-g-eddington)

Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/pgeddington) [ 

](mailto:peddington@cato.org) 

On September 9, 2021, federal judge Thomas A. Varlan acquitted former University of Tennessee professor Dr. Anming Hu of all charges related to a Department of Justice investigation that alleged that Hu committed wire fraud and made false statements about his alleged Chinese government research ties. On November 5, 2021, a federal jury convicted Yanjun Xu, a Chinese national and an official in the Chinese Ministry of State Security, of attempted economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. The differing outcomes of these two cases involve a common thread: the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, an investigative program launched in 2018 to deter and disrupt alleged or actual Chinese government espionage or intellectual property (IP) theft targeting U.S. researchers, universities, and businesses. These two cases raise key questions. How extensive is Chinese government espionage and IP theft targeting the United States? Is the China Initiative a form of racial or ethnic profiling? How has the China Initiative impacted U.S.-Chinese information and technology exchanges and cooperation? How has the U.S. academic community responded to these events? Join us as our expert panel explores all these issues.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).