A US Justice Department program aimed at protecting American technology from China dropped five prosecutions of Chinese scientists after a draft of an internal FBI analysis questioned a main premise for the investigations, according to court documents.
On Thursday and Friday, the U.S. government filed motions in federal courts to dismiss charges in five cases of Chinese researchers arrested on visa fraud charges last year. All pleaded not guilty to falsifying visa applications to conceal military ties as well as other charges. All five arrests occurred about a year ago when US-China relations were at a nadir and now the world's two largest economies are seeking to navigate a troubled relationship.
Court documents filed this month in two cases included FBI draft analysis that questioned how useful the investigation was in safeguarding technology developed in the United States. The report said that the visa application question about military service that ensnared the scientists was unclear.