Texas DA Charges Chinese Scientist With Stealing U.S. Cancer Research

 

“Texas authorities charged a Chinese scientist this week with trying to smuggle federally funded cancer research back to his home country.

 

Yunhai Li, 35, was originally detained at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in on July 9 after federal agents found medical records on his laptop during an inspection ahead of his flight to China, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

 

Now Houston prosecutors have charged the researcher with theft of trade secrets, which is a third-degree felony, and tampering with a government record, a misdemeanor. He could also face federal charges in the future.

 

Since 2022, the MD Anderson Cancer Center had employed Li where he was working on a vaccine to prevent breast cancer from spreading, the New York Post reported.

 

Li reportedly was working on a scholar exchange visa from the U.S. Department of State. The National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department was funding the research.

 

However, on July 1 he suddenly quit and allegedly uploaded the nearly-completed research to a Chinese server on his computer, according to authorities.

 

“We were able to detain him as he was trying to get on a flight to China,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told Houston’s Fox 26. “There was a pretty good chance that he was going to get deported or leave the country — so we needed to file something. We needed to make sure that he was going to stay here, the information was going to stay here, and he was going to be held accountable.”

 

Prosecutors said Li first uploaded his research to his personal Google Drive while employed at MD Anderson. When the institution caught him doing so, he deleted the files. But Chinese entities were also paying the scientist and he had shared his files on a Chinese server called Baidu, according to court documents cited by Fox 26.

 

According to the Houston station:

 

    Documents say on the Baidu drive, investigators found, “unpublished research data and articles representing trade secrets, including material-restricted confidential research data, writings, drawings and models.”

 

    Documents also say Li was receiving grant funding through the National Natural Science Foundation of China as well as performing and publishing research for The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University prior to and during his employment at MD Anderson, saying Li did not disclose the conflict of interest.

 

Theft of Trade Secrets carries a penalty of two to ten years in prison and fines up to $10,000. Tampering with a Government Record is punishable with up to a year in jail and $4,000.

 

Li reportedly posted a $5,100 bond and was required to surrender his passport as a condition of his release.”