A Chinese medical researcher was arrested in Boston earlier this month on suspicion of trying to take stolen biological samples back to China, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent.
He is now under investigation for attempting to bring undeclared biological samples back to China and making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to US customs. He was then escorted to a baggage room, where customs officers showed him the vials found in his checked luggage. The document says Zheng was later taken to an interview room and confessed that he had stolen eight vials from the research lab at Beth Israel Hospital and he had replicated 11 vials from Zhang Tao’s research.
The US has already enhanced scrutiny and tightened visas for Chinese researchers and doctoral students in certain fields due to concerns about intellectual property theft. Story continuesIt cited government officials and university administrators who said that some of those under investigation were suspected of setting up labs in China that secretly duplicated American research.A translated report about Zhang’s case was published on the Chinese social media outlet WeChat, prompting questions about his behaviour from web users.