UT professor rebuilds career after beating false China Initiative charges
Exactly two year ago on Feb. 27, 2020, Anming Hu was sitting in a jail cell, staring at a concrete wall and wondering how he ended up there in the first place.
The U.S. Justice Department had accused Hu, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, of hiding his ties to China and attempting to defraud NASA.
“When I was thrown into the jail, the first 48 hours was real darkness in my life,” Hu told Knox News in an exclusive interview. The details are too painful for him to talk about publicly.
Now, Hu sits in his new office in the Nathan W. Dougherty Engineering Building at UT. A federal judge acquitted Hu of all charges in September 2021, and after an exhausting battle with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Services to secure his work visa, Hu is back on the university’s payroll.
It’s clear he’s only been in his office three weeks; his desk is nearly empty, and the dark blue walls are bare. But it’s a symbol of a new start for Hu.
“I feel this is kind of a reloading of a new life,” Hu said. “I feel really happy, and I’m enjoying a new start. It’s also a good starting point for healing. That’s very important. While a new life starts, the painful feeling and damage are still there in my heart and my family’s hearts.”
Hu could have gone back to being a private resident or moved back to Canada, where he’s a citizen and his wife and kids live, as soon as U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan ordered his acquittal on six federal charges, three of fraud and three of making false statements.
Instead, he’s been sharing his story and advocating for the end of the China Initiative, a Trump-era program created in 2018 to thwart Chinese spying. Hu was the first target of the program to stand trial.
The China Initiative has resulted in some convictions, but Hu’s acquittal and the dismissal of charges against Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Gang Chen have forced the Justice Department to take a closer look at how the program operates.
In a two-hour interview with Knox News this month, Hu shared his experience in the fight that hurt not only his reputation but his family and the scientific community as well.
Anming Hu’s journey to UT
When Hu got an interview to work at UT, he wasn’t even sure where Tennessee was.
The world-renowned nanotechnology expert had been working at the University of Waterloo, where he received his second doctorate in physics.
His first doctorate is from the Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, but he’s no longer a Chinese citizen.
The Waterloo job wasn’t tenure track, though, and Hu started looking for somewhere he could work long-term.
He sent out more than 70 applications to universities. Only one bit.
UT offered him a job as a tenure-track assistant professor, and Hu took it, secured his work visa and moved away from his family.
Over five years, Hu established his research lab and created relationships with students and colleagues.
Then, in April 2018, a pair of federal agents showed up, one from the FBI and one from the Department of Energy.
Hu wasn’t sure why they were there or why they wanted to speak with him. But, looking back, the motive seems clear. They asked him about his international collaborations, specifically with China. He answered honestly.
“I didn’t feel fear because that’s only science collaboration. I don’t have anything to hide. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Hu said. “What they asked, I directly told them. International collaboration and open science — this is a basic value and principal.”
During the conversation, the agents asked Hu to work as a spy for the U.S. government. When he refused, they surveilled him and his oldest son, a UT student at the time, for more than a year, but found no evidence that he was a Chinese spy.
“The problem is they thought I was a spy, then they looked for the evidence,” Hu said.
Ultimately, Hu was arrested on the six federal charges under a 2011 law that prevents NASA from distributing research funds to China or corporations owned by China. Hu received a Nasafunded grant in 2016.
Federal prosecutors alleged Hu intentionally hid his summer job at Beijing University of Technology from NASA.
Looking back, Hu wishes he had kept quiet. “The best practice is keep silent. And ask a lawyer to appear and talk with the law enforcement agent,” Hu said.
Under house arrest
Hu was released from jail and placed under house arrest. Unlike others bound to their homes by the pandemic, Hu wasn’t even able to step out onto his front porch to get fresh air — his leg monitor would alert the authorities.
His only visitors were a neighbor who took out his trash, friends from Knoxville Chinese Christian Church who brought him groceries, and his lawyer, Phil Lomonaco. David, his oldest son who was attending UT, returned to Canada just before the border closed because of the pandemic.
Despite being away from his research lab, Hu continued to work. He reviewed more than 400 research papers for scientific journals, helped his former students get their theses published, published three papers of his own and finished writing a book.
He worked out, too, running 50 laps on the second floor of his house every day.
And even though he couldn’t see his family, he still spoke to them. He helped his middle son, Daniel, with his physics homework. He called his daughter, Grace, every night and told her a bedtime story.
“My family is the biggest source of support,” Hu said. “My family, especially my wife, Ivy, she’s helped me a lot.”
But as Hu’s family watched federal agencies tarnish his reputation, their trust in the U.S. dwindled, Hu said. Both Daniel and Ivy started having nightmares after his arrest.
“They still are very fearful that the U.S. is still a dangerous country,” Hu said.