Charges Dropped Against Professor Accused of Sharing Secret Technology With China

The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped all charges against a Temple University professor and physics department chairman accused of sharing secret semiconductor-related technology with scientists in China after a key flaw emerged in the government’s evidence, The New York Times reported. Xi Xiaoxing, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was thought to have sent a blueprint for a device known as a pocket heater to colleagues in China despite having signed an agreement to keep the device’s design secret. But independent scientists -- including an inventor of the pocket heater -- have attested that the blueprints were not for a pocket heater at all. Xi’s lawyer said that the professor’s correspondence with Chinese scientists involved a different, nonrestricted technology.

The Justice Department said that it was dropping the charges against Xi “in the interests of justice.” Xi was arrested in May, when Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took him from his home in handcuffs.