US drops case against MIT professor accused of ties to China

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has dropped its case against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor charged with hiding work he did for the Chinese government. The department said in a filing Thursday in federal court in Boston that it could no longer meet its burden of proof at trial in the case against Gang Chen. Chen was accused last year of concealing ties to Beijing while also collecting U.S. dollars for nanotechnology research. His lawyers have said he did nothing wrong. The dropping of the case is a further setback to a federal initiative aimed at preventing Beijing from profiting off U.S. academic research.