As the Justice Department’s (DOJ) crackdown on Chinese-state-sponsored intellectual property nets the high-profile conviction of Harvard University’s former chair of chemistry, Charles Lieber, a growing list of China Initiative critics seeks to abolish the program that they say unfairly targets Chinese academics. Notable opponents of the department’s “China Initiative” include Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Judy Chu (D-Calif.); the Stanford University faculty group, Winds of Freedom; and the Chinese American organization, Committee of 100. Launched in 2018, the DOJ billed the initiative as seeking to stem China’s rampant theft of American intellectual property and as an “enforcement strategy” for “individuals whose primary profession is not intelligence collection, but who collect sensitive U.S. technologies and information on behalf of Chinese government entities” — that is, “non-traditional collectors.” Lieber is among a series of U.S. academics convicted or charged under the initiative. Many of these academics have been charged in relation to …