Trump’s China Initiative could soon make a comeback

The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation last Wednesday that would direct the Justice Department to reestablish an office focused on countering threats from China, effectively reviving the controversial “China Initiative” program that was terminated in 2022.

About the bill: The Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, passed by a 34-28 vote, includes language directing the DOJ’s National Security Division to reestablish an office dedicated to countering espionage and influence efforts against perceived threats from China.

Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has defended the measure, saying it “stands firm against Communist China’s theft of American technology and innovation” while investing in law enforcement to combat crime and fentanyl. The $76.824 billion appropriations package represents a 2.8% decrease from fiscal year 2025 levels but prioritizes countering China while maintaining funding for state and local law enforcement.

Dangers of the Initiative: The original China Initiative, launched in 2018 under the first Trump administration, was terminated under the Biden administration in 2022 after widespread criticism that it unfairly targeted Asian American scientists and academics based on their ethnicity rather than actual security threats. At the time, Matthew Olsen, then-assistant attorney general of the National Security Division, acknowledged that the program “helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently.”

The policy’s track record reveals troubling outcomes, with scores of scientists losing their jobs during investigations, many of which were ultimately dropped or dismissed. High-profile cases like those of Dr. Gang Chen and Dr. Anming Hu illustrate the program’s problems: Chen faced federal grant fraud charges that were dropped in January 2022 after he described going through a “living hell” for 371 days, while Hu was acquitted of all charges in September 2021 after a federal judge found prosecutors failed to prove intent to deceive NASA. There is also the tragic case of Dr. Jane Wu, a Northwestern University neuroscientist who died by suicide in July 2024 following years of investigation and institutional abandonment. The China Initiative has also contributed to a documented brain drain, with Chinese-born scientists leaving the U.S. rising from 900 in 2010 to over 2,600 in 2021.

Groups push back: Civil rights advocates are mobilizing against the revival effort. A coalition of more than 80 Asian American organizations sent a letter to Appropriations Committee leaders ahead of its approval, urging the controversial language be removed from the legislation. The groups warned that “reinstating the ‘China Initiative’ or any iteration would be a dangerous step back, reversing the progress made to address these civil rights concerns” and argued the program “diverted crucial resources away from investigating national security threats and economic espionage to instead focus on people who had a ‘nexus to China.’”

Gisela Perez Kusakawa, executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), previously told The Rebel Yellow that “discrimination and isolation are fairly common for Asian Americans and have increased in recent years, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic and the China Initiative.”