4 - Professor and Former NASA Researcher Associated to Thousand Talents Plan

A professor at Texas A&M University, Zhengdong Cheng, was leading a team of students to perform research for NASA. This government funded grant research had a stipulation that prohibited any collaboration with Chinese universities or Chinese owned companies. Cheng, however, failed to disclose his prior association with Guangdong University of Technology in China and his association with the PRC’s Thousand Talents Plan.

The Thousand Talents Plan is a structured recruitment organization in the PRC used to systematically attract and conscript human capital from foreign countries to attend school in the PRC and/or to work in the PRC following graduation. The implication is that students receiving an education in China would contribute to the workforce in a strategic technology field and close the gap between economic ambitions and the size of the workforce educated enough to grow strategic industries.

Dr. Cheng supposedly used his access to NASA resources at Texas A&M to leverage a higher position at Guangdong University of Technology.