The new reality ethnic Chinese Scientists and Tech Professionals Face in the US
In recent years, the scrutiny and investigation on ethnic Chinese scientist has increased drastically. Many of these cases involve IP ownership and technology transfer, some involve fund handling. There are a number of firings and arrests, closing of labs and many more were questioned by law enforcement. However, many of these cases ended with no substance and dismissal. The professional and private lives of those wrongfully charged have been seriously damaged, and fear has been instigated among ethnic Chinese Science and Technology community in the US.
To help ethnic Chinese science and technology community to assess the current situation, educate scientist and tech professionals with regulations and guidelines and help them with credible legal resources. CASTUSA organizes a panel discussion on the perils of being Chinese Scientists and Technology Professionals in the US.
We invited Professor Xiaoxing Xi of Temple University, Edward Kim, a defense lawyer and former prosecutor, Aaron Wolfson, partner of King&Wood and Mallesons to have an insightful discussion on this issue.
Xiaoxing Xi is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics at Temple University, and former chair of the Physics Department. Prior to joining Temple in 2009, he was Professor of Physics and Materials Science and Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. He received his PhD degree in physics from Peking University and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, in 1987.
His research focuses on the materials physics of oxide, boride, and 2-dimensional dichalcogenide thin films. His notable contributions include early work on epitaxial thin films, heterostructures, and electric-field effect in high temperature superconductors, pioneering work on lattice dynamics in ferroelectric thin films and nanostructures, invention of hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition for magnesium diboride, and development of atomic layer-by-layer laser molecular beam epitaxy for oxide thin films and interfaces.
He is author of over 340 refereed journal articles and 3 U.S. patents in the area of thin films of high-Tc superconductors and magnesium diboride. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Born in Beijing, China, Professor Xi is a naturalized American citizen. In 2015, the U.S. government arrested and charged him for sharing a U.S. company technology with China. The charges were later dropped because they were false. Since then, he has spoken out for civic engagement by the Chinese-American community and the scientific community, and against racial profiling.
Edward Kim is a co-founder of Krieger Kim & Lewin LLP, representing multinational companies and individuals in cross-border disputes, criminal and regulatory enforcement actions, and investigations.
Prior to founding the law firm, Mr. Kim served for nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was an Assistant United States Attorney and supervisor of two units in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
Mr.Kim served as a Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, where he oversaw the investigation and prosecution of sophisticated financial frauds, cybercrimes and cryptocurrency frauds, money laundering, FCPA violations, criminal tax offenses, and healthcare fraud. Ed supervised the prosecutions of offshore financial institutions and international bank employees for tax offenses; the investigation of fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs); the indictment of Chinese nationals for obtaining and trading on confidential information obtained through breaching the servers of international law firms; the prosecution of a multi-million dollar fraud and kickback scheme committed by an executive at a publicly traded pharmaceutical manufacture and the Chief Executive Officer of a specialty mail-order pharmacy company, and significant FCPA matters, including two of the Department of Justice’s largest criminal corporate bribery and corruption resolutions.
Mr. Kim also served as a Chief of the General Crimes Unit, where he trained and supervised dozens of the Southern District’s newest prosecutors.
Mr.Kim obtained J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Aaron Wolfson is a New York partner in Dispute Resolution & Litigation group specializing in financial crimes compliance of King &Wood and Mallesons. Mr. Wolfson represents clients nationally and internationally in a variety of matters, including white-collar criminal cases, administrative enforcement matters, trade-related due diligence, complex financial disputes, internal investigations, entity list designations, and corporate compliance issues.
Mr. Wolfson has extensive public and private sector experience. As a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, he led numerous investigations and prosecutions of global financial institutions, for violations of U.S. sanctions laws. He also served as a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, where he was a member of a trial team that prosecuted fraud and price fixing in the municipal bond industry. Mr. Wolfson also held senior positions in a global investment bank’s Anti-Money Laundering and Economic Sanctions programs.
Mr. Wolfson represents clients in U.S. state and federal court in white collar defense and civil litigation matters. Mr. Wolfson also practices in front of both regulatory and criminal justice agencies, including OFAC, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Wolfson obtained J.D. from Duke University. His working languages are English and Mandarin Chinese.
Susan Yuqing Feng serves as Chief New York Correspondent for China Business News (CBN) since 2008. During her tenure, Susan interviewed Warren Buffet, Alan Greenspan, President Clinton, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Thomas Friedman and many other world economic and political leaders. Susan also organized and moderated CBN New York forum with distinguished speakers every year since 2009. The speakers include Carlyle Group LP Co-founder David Rubenstein, former President of World Bank James Wolfensohn and serveal Nobel Economics Laureates. Susan is currently New York bureau chief of Yicai global, China Business News’ English News arm.
Susan directed documentary series “World Movers ” which was released in March, 2018. She interviewed the world’s top strategists and economists in the series. The film illustrates what has changed the United States and the world; and how the forces that change the world affect everyone. It focuses on the relationship between technology and globalization, it’s impact on immigration, future Sino- U.S. relationship and the new world order. https://m.yicai.com/news/5410567.html
Susan joined China Business News in 2004 and start covering and analyzing news on wall street, American economy and international business. She covered 2008 financial crisis, the Great Recession and three elections since 2008. Prior to joining China Business News, Yuqing worked at China Central TV as a producer and had been in TV industry for four years.
Susan graduated from Columbia University and got her MA in International Affairs.