FOX News: NASA admits mistake in banning Chinese scientists, students from conference

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NASA admits mistake in banning Chinese scientists, students from conference Oct 11th 2013, 18:00, by Jeremy A. Kaplan Misapplication of a federal law meant to stem the theft of American technological know-how has kept several Chinese scientists and at least one student from a NASA conference -- a ban criticized by Chinese officials and the law's author. One of those banned is Yale University post-doctoral student Ji Wang, who had planned to present data from the now-defunct Kepler spacecraft at the event. In an e-mail to NASA staff seen by FoxNews.com, space agency chief Charlie Bolden blamed "mid-level managers" and said his office was looking to correct the mistake. "In performing the due diligence they believed appropriate following a period of significant concern and scrutiny from Congress about our foreign access to NASA facilities, meetings and websites, [they] acted without consulting NASA HQ," Bolden wrote. 'It is unfortunate that potential Chinese participants were refused attendance at the upcoming Kepler Conference.' - NASA's Charlie Bolden "Upon learning of this exclusion, I directed that we review the requests for attendance from scientists of Chinese origin and determine if we can recontact them immediately upon the reopening of the government to allow them to reapply." Alan P. Boss, a member of the Carnegie Institution for Science and co-chair of the conference, told FoxNews.com he was happy to hear that NASA had changed its mind. "We on the [Scientific Organizing Committee] are glad that NASA is finally working to fix this problem, which would have been fixed long ago if not for the government shutdown," Boss said. The ban had been widely denounced by both Chinese officials and scientists, who initially labeled it "deplorable." The issue arose when a member of NASA's Ames Research Center where the Kepler Science Conference II is to be held next month cited a 2013 temporary restriction spearheaded by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. It prevents the agency from hosting any Chinese nationals, and was drafted as a response to national security concerns -- concerns described to FoxNews.com in conversations with a whistle-blower earlier this year. But it shouldn't extend to students and ordinary scientists, Wolf said. "It places no restrictions on activities involving individual Chinese nationals unless those nationals are acting as official representatives of the Chinese government," reads an Oct. 8 letter Wolf wrote to NASA chief Charlie Bolden and supplied to FoxNews.com.  [pullquote] Speaking Wednesday in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called the ban "discriminatory." She said China believed that academic or scientific research activities "should not be politicized." A strongly worded letter from the committee organizing the event agreed. "We find the consequences of this law deplorable and strongly object to banning our Chinese colleagues, or colleagues from any nation, from participation in KSC2 at NASA/Ames. Had we been aware of this possibility at the onset of planning KSC2, alternate venues to NASA/Ames would have been pursued," the letter reads. Wolf said the ban was a misinterpretation of the rules: NASA had conflated the temporary restriction and a larger, 2011 congressional provision that primarily restricts bilateral meetings and activities with the Communist Chinese government. "The email from NASA Ames mischaracterizes the law and is inaccurate." Yet Wolf told Bolden he remains concerned about leaks of highly sensitive information from Ames and elsewhere in NASA. "There is good reason Congress is concerned about providing the Communist Chinese government with additional opportunities to work with the U.S. on space given their continued cyberattacks, espionage campaigns and development of space weapons to use against the U.S.," Wolf wrote.

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