From Lecture Halls to Jail Cells: The Rising Risks of University Research
The second example is the Roth case, mentioned above. In 2006, Roth, a world-renowned American plasma physicist and then professor at the University of Tennessee, travelled to China to deliver a series of lectures. During this time, Roth intended to submit a paper to the 2007 conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. However, poor hotel wi-fi meant that he could not access the latest draft of the paper. With the deadline fast approaching, Roth urgently contacted one of his PhD students in Tennessee, requesting that the student email the draft paper to Roth’s host in China, a physics professor at Fudan University. The student obliged. Roth’s Chinese host was able to get him a copy of the draft paper with enough time to complete the submission to the conference.
Pages 10 to 14 of the draft paper, however, included data from a project on plasma actuators that was funded by the US Air Force, which fell under export controls. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee judged that, by instructing his student to forward export-controlled data to a Chinese national without a license, Roth had engaged in the ‘unlawful export of technical data’. This led to a 48-month prison sentence for Roth, which began in January 2012. Roth’s paper was ultimately withdrawn from the conference.
These case studies, though brief, offer a window into the challenges facing university regulators when it comes to export-control compliance.
Roth’s case demonstrates that export-control violations can occur without any apparent premeditation or malice; they can involve intangible goods, such as technical data in email attachments, the distribution of which is difficult to monitor and control; and they can occur through innocuous and routine activities, such as sharing publications or drafts with peers. The Cai case shows that these violations can occur outside formal university structures through the independent and unsanctioned actions of university actors.
University researchers and administrators working in high-risk areas such as engineering and natural sciences need to remain sensitive to the requirements of export controls and to the high personal liabilities that they face for non-compliance, such as fines and the loss of professional opportunities. In extreme cases, those who commit export-control violations can face deportation and even jail time.
Universities should be clear-eyed about the need to negotiate trade-offs between research security and international engagement. National export-control authorities also need to provide adequate guidance and support to university institutions and researchers navigating increasingly onerous export-control regimes.
Christopher J Watterson is a research fellow with the Foreign Policy and Defense program at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney. This article is published courtesy of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
