6 - Cleveland Clinic Researcher Linked to Thousand Talents Plan

Dr. Qing Wang, a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, allegedly used more than 3.6 million dollars in grant funding from the National Institute of Health to conduct research. The case alleges that while employed at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, he was also the Dean of the College of Life Sciences and Technology at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. While employed at both of these institutions, he had received grant funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to perform similar research to the work he was conducting for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

In addition to this, Dr. Wang was affiliated with the Chinese Thousand Talents Plan. According to the justice department report, after Dr. Wang agreed to join the Thousand Talents Plan, the facilities of the college he was the dean of in China got $3 million in support from the Chinese government to upgrade research facilities. Dr. Wang also received free travel on his trips to China as well as an apartment on campus provided by the PRC government.

A year after these charges were raised, the USG dismissed these charges. It is uncertain why the charges were dismissed; however, this case still exemplifies how university collaboration, and the Thousand Talents Plan, are intricately linked to the PRC’s efforts to further strategic research and recruitment.