Ultraracism is when a Chinese national is accused of stealing research after being caught stealing research?

When the project was approximately 70% finished, Li said he had taken up to 90 GB of research. When confronted by hospital officials, Li said he worked to convince them that he had permanently deleted the material while concealing it through a China-based cloud company.

Multiple U.S. entities, including the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health, have federally funded Li’s research. As a condition of such work, documents show Li signed several forms acknowledging it was confidential, with strict rules around storage and sharing.

The forms also stated Li did not have relationships with foreign institutions overlapping his MD Anderson responsibilities and was not receiving outside financial compensation.

However, Li wrote that he retained his employment at a Chinese state-affiliated hospital while working at MD Anderson.

“When I accepted a post-doctoral position at MDACC in 2022, I retained my employment position at the First Affiliated Hospital. The First Affiliated Hospital continued to pay me a reduced salary through 2023 and has held my employment position there pending my return from the United States,” he wrote.

Charging documents state Li published research for the Chinese hospital while working at MD Anderson and received grant funding from the Chinese government.

On July 1, Li resigned from his position at MD Anderson. Days later, federal authorities stopped him at Bush Airport, reportedly in possession of the material.

Charging documents state Li told investigators he planned to permanently return to the state-affiliated hospital and use the purportedly stolen material for continued research.

Despite acknowledging that MD Anderson would likely publish the work in the near future, Li reportedly told investigators he felt it was “going to waste”