On November 1, 2018, the Department of Justice launched the China Initiative to counter national security threats emanating from China. In September 2021, the director of the FBI stated that the FBI is opening counterintelligence investigations with a nexus to China every twelve hours. Today, the scope of the China Initiative goes far beyond traditional spying to include concerns about violations of intellectual property rights and of failures to disclose ties to entities in China on government grant forms.
This talk explores the motivations behind the China Initiative and the concerns about bias in its framing and operation. It also addresses why the Initiative threatens to undermine the very economic competitiveness that it seeks to protect.
About the Speaker
Maggie Lewis is a Professor of Law at Seton Hall University. Her research focuses on law in China and Taiwan with an emphasis on criminal justice and human rights. Professor Lewis has been a Fulbright senior scholar at National Taiwan University, a visiting professor at Academia Sinica, and a Public Intellectuals Program Fellow with the National Committee on United States-China Relations. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Lewis is currently living in Taipei as a recipient of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Taiwan Fellowship.