Facts

• The DOJ is scrapping the Trump-era China Initiative and imposing a higher bar for prosecutions of professors.
• The policy, aimed at combating Chinese economic espionage, is being dropped after years of opposition from Asian Americans.
• Critics say the program contributed to anti-Asian bias and made the US less competitive as it cooled collaboration between US and Chinese academics.
• Assistant AG Matthew Olsen has rebuffed claims the CI targeted people based on ethnicity.
• The program recently faced renewed scrutiny after charges were dropped against MIT Prof. Gang Chen, who had been accused of failing to disclose relationships and funding from Chinese entities.