[av_engr]

I think the problem is failing to disclose ties with foreign governments. Scientists, just like any professionals, should be held accountable for any potential conflict of interest. Not saying we should bar scientists from collaboration, but it is important to be conscious about what kind of collaborations are happening and how it affects national security or even information securities between our ally countries.

Since we are talking about China, they have been launching programs that "recruits" foreign talents or foreign-trained Chinese talents to participate in technological development in China. However, participant of the program has been reported to partake in intellectual theft, especially sensitive/proprietary technologies [1].

I am giving NIH the benefit of the doubt here since IP theft has been a real problem for the US, especially with technology transfer to China. I don't think this is racist at all because it's a matter of curbing IP thefts and taking a precaution on growing aggression of a country that happens to be 91.6% ethnically Han Chinese people[2].

Source: [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Talents_Plan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China