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Facts Matter
Federal Judge Strips Chinese Couple of US Citizenship for Stealing Sensitive Secrets
00:09:45
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In a rare case of denaturalization, a federal judge has just stripped the US Citizenship of a Chinese couple, a Chinese man and woman living right here in America. This came after this husband and wife dynamic duo were convicted of stealing medical trade secrets from America to China. Now, interestingly, the couple actually pled guilty and served several years in prison. But even after that, the doj, the Department of Justice, and they felt that their crimes were so morally reprehensible that they could not remain here as naturalized US Citizens. Let's go through the details of what actually took place together, what this couple did, how they came to America, and why it was so, as the DOJ put it, morally repugnant that they had to not only serve several years behind bars, but also literally get booted from the country. And as always, if you appreciate content like this, please do take a quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons with which will force the YouTube algorithm to pick the episode up and share it with ever more people. Thank you so much for that. Now, to start with, these are the two individuals in question. They're up on your screen. You have Ms. Li Chen and Mr. Yu Jo. In terms of the wife, Li chen, back in 2007, the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, sponsored her to come here through an H1B visa, meaning she was able to come here to Ohio to work for the hospital. And because the hospital claimed they were not able to find an American to fill that research role. Then in 2011, Ms. Chen got a bit of an upgrade. She filed a green card application using Form I140, claiming to be an alien worker of extraordinary ability. It basically means she is at the top of her field. She has some kind of an unusual rare talent or ability, and therefore she should be granted a green card to stay here in America. U.S. immigration Services approved a and she was granted a green card back in the year 2011. Her husband, Mr. Yu Jo, who was also working for the Nationwide Children's Hospital over in Columbus, he piggybacked off of her application. Because she got a green card, he was able to become a permanent US Resident as well. Then eventually that led to citizenship for the both of them. Ms. Chen, she became a naturalized US citizen in 2016, and Mr. Zhou, he became a naturalized US citizen in 2017. And so, so far, so good. You have a true, basically American story. Two intelligent, hardworking people from another country immigrate over to the US and are working at a research lab at a children's hospital doing good science for the country. Great. However, shortly after getting his citizenship, Mr. Zhou abruptly quit his job. And then within a few months, Ms. Chen, she abruptly quit the job in the hospital as well. A federal investigation was conducted, and what it revealed was that this husband and wife duo were stealing trade secrets that they had access to at this lab in Ohio related to exosomes. Exosomes play a key role in the research, identification, and treatment of a range of medical conditions, including necrotizing enterocolitis, a condition found in premature babies, liver fibrosis, and liver cancer. Court documents detail that Chen conspired to steal and and then monetize one of the trade secrets by creating and selling exosome isolation kits. Chen started a company in China to sell the kits. And so basically, the couple saw what I guess you would call an arbitrage opportunity. They took the cutting edge research that they had access to at this lab in Ohio, and they used this exosome research to be able to set up shop inside of China, manufacture and sell these isolation test kits for people in China to be able to see whether they have different diseases. And this, by the way, was done with full approval and support from the Chinese Communist government, who gave them state funding for the project. Quote, Chen received benefits from the Chinese government, including the State Administration of Foreign Expert affairs and the National Natural Science foundation of China. She also applied to multiple Chinese government talent plans, a method used by China to transfer foreign research and technology to the Chinese government. And by the way, just as a total aside, it's so wild to read in black and white how clearly our own government understands that the Chinese Communist Party has these initiatives in place for these talented individuals to go into other countries like the US and basically steal the secrets back to the motherland. And yet we allow all these researchers to come into our country and have access to our secrets. It's. It's almost unbelievable that both things are true. Regardless, though, according to what the feds were able to piece together, the couple raked in about $1.5 million from the theft of this intellectual property from Columbus, Ohio. However, they were caught. In 2019, the feds arrested the couple and charged them with conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The husband and wife eventually pled guilty to both charges, and in 2021, they were sentenced. The wife got 30 months in prison, while the husband got 33 months in prison. And on top of that, they were also sentenced of supervised release following their prison term. And they were ordered to forfeit the $1.5 million in illegal profits, as well as order to pay $2.6 million in criminal restitution. Now, if you do the math, their 30 month long sentence began in 2021 and ran until 2023, and then their supervised release ends in the year 2026. However, the DOJ decided that this was not enough. And so, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, they moved to go ahead and denaturalize this husband and wife pair to strip them of their U.S. citizenship status. The rationale for doing so, at least according to the judge, is because the couple lacked the good moral character that they claim to have as a prerequisite for obtaining U.S. citizenship. Quote, Judge James E. Simmons Jr. Entered an order revoking the naturalized U.S. citizenship of husband and wife Lee Chen and Yu Jones. Finding they illegally procured their naturalization. The court determined that the crimes they pled guilty to constituted crimes involving moral turpitude that prevented them from having the good moral character necessary to naturalize. And just for your general reference, having good moral character is an actual material requisite for the naturalization process. It's an actual box you do have to check off. And nowadays you have to actually proactively prove that you have good moral character. And I guess they claim to have it, but they didn't. And so there you have it. The husband and wife pair are now out of prison, but they will soon also be out of the country, most likely heading back to mainland China. Also, it is worth mentioning as an aside, that denaturalization like this is extremely rare. We actually discussed it in much greater depth in a prior episode. But essentially, barring some sort of a substantial change to federal law, the number of people who get denaturalized per year is incredibly small. According to public records from the year 1990 to 2017, the DOJ averaged only about 11 denaturalization cases per year. Then under Trump's first term, it was 42 per year. Under Biden's term, it was 16 per year. And under Trump's second term, thus far at least, the DOJ has brought forth 14 cases and won thus far, nine of them. And so even at the very max, there has been maybe a thousand denaturalization cases in the past 36 years, which is a tiny fraction of the 25 million people who are currently living here in the US as naturalized citizens. And so I guess you can say Ms. Li Chen and Mr. Yu Jo are now part of the few, the shameful, the denaturalized. If you'd like to read the details of their scheme as well as the rationale for them getting their citizenship status taken away. I'll throw all the relevant court documents in. You can find them in the description box below this video. And then lastly, I'll mention, as a totally separate, off topic aside, that we here at the Epic Times published a great documentary called Truth Under Fire, where we not only went through Charlie Kirk's life and legacy, but also we connected the dots and trace back the origins of the extremist labels that were imposed upon him, as well as the process of those labels spiraling out of control, taking on a life of their own, and ultimately putting Charlie in the crosshairs. And basically we sort of unpacked the giant machine that was mobilized to label Charlie as a dangerous extremist, to tar and feather him publicly, to brand him as something like a right wing threat to the very fabric of society. And we showed that it was not organic. This was a step by step campaign to dehumanize him. And unfortunately it worked. And also unfortunately, that type of a campaign machine is still in place, evidenced by the fact that just what took place over the weekend and over at the D.C. national Correspondence Dinner, right, another guy, based on his what either Twitter feed or Blue sky feed, got what usurped by all these narratives that were floating around and then tried to bum rush the President and take pop shots at him and his administration. So what took place with Charlie is a very, I guess you can say good case study, but don't think of it as the, you know, the only one. It's actually the canary in the coal mine. And I guess the silver lining to what happened with Charlie, if there is one, is that millions of Americans woke up to these tactics. And so, yeah, check it out. That documentary, it's really well done. And if you want to watch it, the link to it will be right there at the top of the description box below. It's called Truth Under Fire, produced right here in house by the Epoch Times. Check it out. The link is right there at the top of the description box below. And then, until next time, I'm your host Roman from the Epic Times. Stay, stay informed and most importantly, stay free.