Promotion for flawed prosecutor stirs anger

An assistant US attorney responsible for a flawed prosecution under the "China Initiative "has recently been nominated to take over the top federal prosecutorial post in East Tennessee, which has sparked a national campaign of opposition from Asian American and scientific communities.

Casey Arrowood, the lead prosecutor in the case of China-born nanotechnology expert Anming Hu at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was nominated by President Joe Biden in late July to serve as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee for a term of four years.

Hu was the first among a series of similar prosecutions under the now-defunct "China Initiative", a controversial program launched by the administration of former president Donald Trump in November 2018 to target researchers with ties to China, with the aim of combating economic espionage.

With Hu's original trial ending in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury in June last year, Arrowood pursued a retrial in July, despite calls from academic and civil rights groups to drop the case.

In September last year, US District Court Judge Thomas Varlan acquitted Hu of all charges, finding the government's evidence to be clearly insufficient to allow a rational jury to convict Hu.

In a letter to Biden on Aug 19, Hu asked him to rescind the nomination, saying that Arrowood should not have brought the case forward when the FBI agent found no evidence of espionage. He also accused Arrowood of not understanding the law in his case, regarding NASA's funding restrictions concerning China.

"This wrongful prosecution significantly damaged my career, life and my family. Although I was eventually reinstated by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville as a tenured professor, the scar from this painful memory still deeply torments my family and me," Hu wrote.

Hu's letter has received support from a coalition of Asian American groups, including APA Justice, the Asian American Scholar Forum, the Tennessee Chinese American Alliance and the United Chinese Americans.

Nationwide campaign

The organizations have launched a nationwide campaign to call for the White House to withdraw the nomination, and for the Senate Judiciary Committee to take no action on the nomination until an investigation and a hearing have been completed.

A recent survey by the Asian American Scholar Forum showed that 64 percent of the 1,354 respondents－all university faculty members across the United States－said they feel unsafe as academic researchers, and 67 percent are considering leaving the US.

The organizations are calling on people to join the campaign by co-signing their letters to the president and the Senate Judiciary Committee by Sept 4.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com