Lieber previously worked at Harvard, where his technology showed promise in treating people with diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or restoring mobility to paralyzed patients. However, his technology also has military potential, which is why Lieber’s research was sponsored by the US Department of Defense and which scientists employed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have been focusing on for a long time. They want to create super soldiers by strengthening mental agility and situational awareness, writes Reuters.
Lieber’s American scientific career ended when he was found guilty in December 2021 of lying to federal investigators and of tax offenses related to payments he received from a Chinese university. As punishment, he spent two days behind bars and six months under house arrest, was fined 50 thousand dollars (one million crowns) and had to pay another 33.6 thousand (701 thousand crowns) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“My goal is to make Shenzhen a world leader”
Currently, Lieber is an employee of the Chinese government-funded Institute for Brain Research, Advanced Interfaces and Neurotechnology (i-BRAIN). “On April 28, 2025, I arrived with a dream and maybe a few bags of clothes. My personal goal is to make Shenzhen a world leader,” Lieber said at a press conference in December.
In i-BRAIN, he has access to more advanced technologies than Harvard has at his disposal, and he can test his creations on primates, which, according to available information, he did not do at the American university. Scientists state that such tests are needed in order to be able to move on to tests of technology on people, but in the US there are great difficulties with their financing. This is also why China can be a very attractive destination for foreign experts.
New reports that, despite his previous conviction for cooperation with China, Lieber managed to practically replicate his Harvard laboratory in the Asian country, according to experts, highlight how American efforts to protect technologies with possible military use are not keeping pace with Chinese efforts to acquire them.
“China has made a weapon out of our openness and our efforts to innovate. They have turned it against us and are taking advantage of it,” commented Glenn Gerstell, adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former US national security adviser.
The conviction of Lieber was one of the few successes of the Chinese initiative of the US Department of Justice, launched during the first term of office of US President Donald Trump. It was supposed to crack down on Chinese economic sabotage and theft of intellectual property, but instead it was terminated under the administration of Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, at a time when it already had a series of failures and accusations of racial profiling.
Questions are now circulating as to why the court allowed Lieber three trips to China in 2024, when he was still under state supervision, including one with the stated goal of finding a job. Apparently, his travels did not cause astonishment, despite the fact that his defense attorneys claimed during the trial that he has lymphoma, due to which he can only leave the house for short walks, medical examinations or visits to a local farm.
Lieber’s lawyers also stated at the time of the trial that, according to his own words, he got involved with China when he was “young and stupid.” His motivation was said to be that he wanted to win the Nobel Prize and gain recognition for his work. “This is a guy who was convicted of exactly what we would want him to be convicted of in this context, and he disappears to China right after his house arrest ends,” Gerstell commented on the failure of American legal instruments.
