‘China Initiative’: US ends Trump-era targeting of Chinese professors

Justice department said it would drop China Initiative' label, in part out of recognition of threats from other countries

The US justice department is scrapping the name of a Trump-era initiative that was intended to crack down on economic espionage by China but has been criticised as unfairly targeting Chinese professors at American colleges because of their ethnicity.

The decision to abandon the China Initiative" and to impose a higher bar for prosecution of professors was announced on Wednesday by the department's top national security official.