Visiting Researcher Indicted for Failure to Disclose Military Role

The case of a lieutenant in the Chinese army who studied physics at Boston University points to broader vulnerabilities in US academia, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Amy Schleunes

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AChinese researcher who was granted a visa to study at Boston University and was later found to have lied about her role in the Chinese military has exposed vulnerabilities in American universities that collaborate internationally on scientific research, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Yanqing Ye, a student at the National University of Defense Technology in China, is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as an agent of a foreign government, reports the Journal. According to the indictment, Ye failed to declare on her J-1 visa application that she was a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army, and carried out military assignments between 2017 and 2019 while studying at Boston University (BU). The Federal Bureau of Investigation tells the newspaper that Ye has likely returned to China.

At BU, Ye studied with statistical physicist Eugene Stanley, who tells the Journal that he assesses candidates requesting ...

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Meet the Author

Amy Schleunes
A former intern at The Scientist, Amy studied neurobiology at Cornell University and later earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is a Los Angeles–based writer, editor, and communications strategist who collaborates on nonfiction books for Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and also teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University CTY. Her favorite projects involve sharing the insights of science and medicine.
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