Recently, Dr. Xu Xiaoxing, the head of the physics department at Temple University was arrested and accused of sharing confidential American-made technology - a pocket heater - with China. Dr. Xu is a U.S. citizen with Chinese ancestry. Recently, certain schematics of a sophisticated device were found in his correspondence to Chinese scientists. After the FBI bursted into his apartment, handcuffed him, and took him away, Dr. Xu was left with limited freedom on campus and the school administrators deprived him of his position as the head of the physics department. Fortunately, Dr. Xu’s reputation and career was rescued by the sworn affidavits from leading scientists, including a co-inventor of the pocket heater. Last week, the U.S. government finally dropped the charges against him. Dr. Xu had the luck fairy on his side; however, others were less fortunate. For example, Professor Rongxing Li, a prominent professor at Ohio State University, resigned and then disappeared during his collaboration with NASA on its Mars exploration projects. (The Columbus Dispatch) After reading this, the skeptics must be gossiping about how this is America’s revenge for the cyber attack on the Office of Personnel Management, which was pinned on the Chinese government. The conspiracists must be whispering about how the Chinese government has grown out its devious claws. What is the truth? We don’t know yet. In fact, we might never know. In Dr. Xu’s case, Uncle Sam had indeed made a mistake for prosecuting the faithful American citizen. Then again, why was the Chinese-American “targeted” or “monitored” in the first place? Indeed, like Mr. Zeidenberg, who represented Dr. Xu, said, “Dr. Xu might not have gotten on the government’s radar if he was a Canadian-American or French-American.” It is sad to see citizens reduced to a mere pawn in the international game of politics. This article was written by Mengzhu Chen. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Allison Chesky