Federal judge hands down light sentence in latest rebuke of the US government’s China Initiative.
The US Department of Justice asked for a sentence of 2.5 years for Feng Tao, but the judge delivered a light sentence of time served .A federal judge has sentenced US chemical engineer Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao to time served in a case stemming from the US government’s controversial China Initiative, which sought to protect US laboratories and businesses from economic espionage.
One of Tao’s attorneys, Peter Zeidenberg, said in an e-mail that his client was “immensely relieved” at the sentence, but nevertheless plans to appeal the conviction. “We were also gratified to hear the judge say, once again, that neither the government nor KU was defrauded or harmed,” Zeidenberg wrote. “And she reiterated that this was never a case about espionage.
According to a transcript from the sentencing hearing, US district judge Julie Robinson pointed out that testimony from Tao’s trial indicated his research was not of immediate commercial value, and probably would not be for 20 years or more. Rather than being proprietary — and therefore worth stealing — she said, “it’s the type of research that it’s freely shared in the scientific community”.
Zeidenberg did not comment on Tao’s plans for the future. The prosecutors’ office declined to give a statement toThe light sentence was probably a relief, not just to Tao, but to scientists of Chinese descent who have felt targeted by the China Initiative and other government policies, says Jenny Lee, a social scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies research collaborations.
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