An analysis by Race, Racism and the Law, a US civil rights group, found that of the 148 defendants in 77 cases collected in the FBI database under the China Initiative, 130 were of Chinese heritage. Only 25 percent were convicted, according to the group, and few of the convictions were related to espionage.

Despite the wide criticism of the China Initiative, with US Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen saying it was not "the right approach to meet the threat in the coming years", the US Congress is working on legislation to reinstate the program.

Chen, the MIT professor, said: "Sadly, some politicians choose to ignore history and disregard the truth, as seen in the current push by the House to relaunch the China Initiative. We must unite and stand against this."

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Sept 11 to reinstate the initiative. It sent the legislation to the Senate, where it was referred to the Judiciary Committee.

On Oct 1, Steven Kivelson and Peter Michelson, physics professors at Stanford University, sent a letter to top leaders of both major parties in the House and Senate to "strongly oppose" the bill.

The two professors cited the 2024 National Academy of Sciences' Consensus Study Report, which said that the influx to the US of international talent has dropped since 2018.

"The NAS consensus report concluded that the China Initiative was highly problematic, especially in its disproportionate focus on fundamental research in academia," the professors' letter said.

They urged Congress not to reinstate the China Initiative or pass new initiatives that resemble it.