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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Professor Pleads Guilty to Concealing Ties With China While Receiving Funds From NASA

Monday, September 26, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/professor-pleads-guilty-of-concealing-ties-in-china-while-receiving-funds-from-nasa_4753424.html

U.S. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers (C) speaks during a press conference announcing the “China Initiative” to crack down on Chinese espionage at the Justice Department in Washington, on Nov. 1, 2018. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Zhengdong Cheng, a Texas A&M professor and NASA researcher, pleaded guilty to charges related to lying about his connections to China. Cheng was arrested and charged with conspiracy, making false statements, and wire fraud in 2020.

According to an FBI’s Twitter post on Sept. 23, Cheng pleaded guilty to lying to Texas A&M University (TAMU) about his affiliations with Chinese entities to violate his agreements with NASA.

A federal judge in Houston accepted a plea deal. As part of the deal, Cheng agreed to pay $86,876 in restitution to NASA and a $20,000 fine. Court documents show Cheng and prosecutors agreed that the 13 months he already spent in jail is “an appropriate sentence in the matter,” the KBTX reported.

China Initiative
The arrest and charge of Cheng was part of the China Initiative effort, led by the National Security Division (NSD) of the U.S. Department of Justice, for countering nation-state threats to the United States.

The department announced the China Initiative in 2018 during the Trump administration to combat Beijing’s relentless security threats by identifying and prosecuting those engaged in trade secret theft, hacking, and economic espionage.

According to the NPR report, the initiative was controversial for causing “much criticism from civil rights groups that say it created a climate of fear among Asian Americans.”

After a review of the initiative, the Biden administration scrapped it in February.

In fact, the scale of Beijing’s efforts to steal U.S. secrets, technology, and research is staggering.

The Justice Department will continue to combat Chinese espionage and cyberthreats, just without the China Initiative banner, according to the head of the National Security Division, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, NPR reported.

He also said the department needed to be responsive to concerns raised by civil rights groups, academics, and scientists about what they say were negative ripple effects caused by the China Initiative, according to the NPR.

Intellectual Property Theft
Cheng is accused of hiding his affiliation with Chinese State-owned academic and commercial institutions, such as the Guangdong University of Technology, along with other foreign universities, while disregarding the rules established under his NASA contract during his employment at TAMU, said an FBI Twitter post on Aug. 25, 2020, when Cheng was arrested.

Cheng was fired from Texas A&M shortly after his arrest.

“Texas A&M and the Texas A&M System take security very seriously, and we constantly are on the look-out for vulnerabilities, especially when national security is involved,” said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M System. “We will continue to work with our federal partners to keep our intellectual property secure and out of the hands of foreign governments who seek to do us harm,” stated the TAMU News Release.

The FBI prioritizes investigating threats to academia as part of the commitment to preventing intellectual property theft at U.S. research institutions and companies, according to an FBI Twitter post on Sept. 23, “We faithfully protect the integrity of federally funded research and prevent the loss of billions of dollars from the American economy by collaborating with all community, private, and public sector partners, such as Texas A&M University.”

Cheng is also a participant in China’s Thousand Talents program, an initiative allegedly designed to “attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity, and national security,” stated the Department of Justice.

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