China Initiative 2.0? Raids on scientist Wang Xiaofeng revive spectre from first Trump era

Two Indiana homes of cybersecurity researcher and professor raided by FBI and Homeland Security but no reason cited, local media report

Reading Time:3 minutes

99+

Wang Xiaofeng, who was named a distinguished member by the Association for Computing Machinery in 2021, joined Indiana University Bloomington as an assistant professor in 2004 after receiving his PhD in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:03pm, 31 Mar 2025Updated: 9:45am, 1 Apr 2025

Security raids on the homes of a noted Chinese-American cybersecurity researcher have reignited fears of racial profiling in Trump-led America, under what some are calling a de facto “China Initiative 2.0”.

According to local media, officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security on Friday searched two homes owned by Wang Xiaofeng, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington.

The searches in the cities of Bloomington and Carmel were carried out under a court warrant, but authorities did not disclose the grounds for the operation, a report said, citing an FBI spokeswoman in the Indiana state capital.

The raids have left the Chinese-American scientific community bracing for a return of the politically charged investigations that upended academic collaboration under the first Donald Trump administration.

A Chinese biologist working at the National Institutes of Health – the largest US funding agency for biomedical research – told the Post on condition of anonymity that Wang’s case had given Chinese-origin scientists in the US another reason to feel “a deeper chill”.

“‘China Initiative 2.0’ has always been a topic of discussion in the US,” the biologist said, referencing a policy launched under Trump in late 2018.