Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

US chemical engineer avoids prison after conviction for hiding ties to China

Federal judge hands down light sentence in latest rebuke of the US government’s China Initiative.
  1. Neil Savage
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A federal judge has sentenced US chemical engineer Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao to time served in a case stemming from the US government’s controversial China Initiative, which sought to protect US laboratories and businesses from economic espionage. Tao, who worked as a researcher at the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence at the time he was arrested, was convicted of failing to disclose ties to China on a university form.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00122-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 23 January 2023: An earlier version of this story said that the US Department of Justice charged Feng Tao with failing to disclose his ties to China while receiving research funding from the US Department of Defense. He was receiving funding from the Department of Energy.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links