OCA Denounces the U.S. Department of Justice’s Decision to Retry Former University of Tennessee Professor Anming Hu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2021

Media Contact:
Andrew Peng, Communications Associate
andrew.peng@ocanational.org

Washington, D.C. — Federal prosecutors announced Friday that they intend to retry former University of Tennessee professor Anming Hu, just weeks after jurors deadlocked in the first trial over claims that Hu hid ties to China.

A judge had ordered the U.S. government to provide an update indicating whether it would retry Hu by July 30. Hu was initially charged in February 2020 with federal counts of wire fraud and an FBI agent reportedly admitted to baselessly accusing the former professor of espionage during the trial.

“We are deeply disappointed by the federal government’s decision to retry Professor Hu,” said OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates’ National President Linda Ng. “The original trial laid bare the misguided and systemic efforts to strip Asian Americans and Asian immigrants of their civil liberties and shows the entrenched anti-Asian sentiment rampant among some members of law enforcement. And more importantly, it incurred a high emotional and financial toll on Hu and his family.”

“The federal government must understand how harmful this initiative is to both the targeted professors and the greater Asian American community,” said OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates’ Deputy Executive Director Thu Nguyen. “Not only is the rhetoric around the ‘China Initiative’ perpetuating anti-Asian sentiments, stereotypes, and hate incidents, it destroys the careers of those targeted.” 

Earlier this week, nearly 100 members of Congress, led by Rep. Ted Lieu, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing concerns over potential misconduct in the Hu case and urged for an investigation into the U.S. Department of Justice’s “wrongful targeting of individuals of Asian descent.”

Under former President Trump’s “China Initiative,” dozens of researchers and professors working in American universities have been racially targeted and falsely accused of providing intelligence to China.

###

OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates is a national social justice organization of community advocates dedicated to improving the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). Learn more about our work at ocanational.org/about.