Nianli Ma, married to cyber expert and former Indiana University Professor, Xiaofang Wang, spoke out for the first time since the couple’s abrupt dismissals from Indiana University and a raid of their homes by the FBI. Ma said, “I feel trapped in a constant state of worry and sadness. What have we done to deserve this treatment? We are just desperately seeking answers.”
Ma, who had worked as a library systems analyst, spoke to an online town hall organized by the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) that was held to discuss the political climate for Asian Americans, said she has had trouble sleeping and lost weight since the incidents.
“I just can’t understand how the university to which we dedicated over two decades of our lives could treat us like this without even telling us why or going through due process… Yes, especially for my husband, who is a tenured professor, it hurts deeply that a country we trusted and contributed to for so long now treat[s] us like criminals.”
Ling Xi of the South China Morning Post writes, “The couple drew national attention after FBI agents searched their residences in Bloomington and Carmel, Indiana, and seized boxes of materials on March 28. Wang, a world-renowned researcher in cryptography, privacy and cybersecurity, was dismissed by the university that same day for allegedly failing to disclose a Chinese research grant from 2017.”
Ma and Wang moved to the United States 26 years ago. “Every time I walk into my husband’s home office and see him proudly cover the walls and his shelves with the certificates and trophies of my son, I’m reminded of the loving home we have created and all the sweet moments we have had here,” Ma reflects on their time
The termination of Ma’s position as a library systems analyst and programmer came just days before Wang was dismissed, and neither Ma nor Wang was given full explanation for their firing or the reason behind the FBI raid of their home. The family has suffered financial loss due to their loss of employment and their son has set up a GoFundMe to help cover their legal expenses.
Luke Wang, their son, writes in the GoFundMe bio:
“I was born in Indiana, and for my entire life, I have been a proud Hoosier… This country is all that I have known and I grew up believing in the U.S. justice system… We are struggling to comprehend what we have done to be treated as criminals by the country which my parents have contributed to for nearly three decades. With both of my parents unemployed and Indiana University having no explanation for their termination, we have begun to face financial challenges, particularly with heavy legal expenses and even more uncertain costs ahead.”
Other faculty members expressed their support of the couple and disappointment in the university’s unfair termination in addition to their unwillingness to answer their questions.
When Carl Weinberg, a teaching professor at Indiana University, and other staff pressed the administration for answers, they were told to send any further questions to the FBI.
Weinberg said, “According to the rules at Indiana University, where Xiaofeng Wang had worked for 20 years, he was entitled to 10 days’ notice and a hearing before the faculty board of review. The administration at Indiana University has denied him these rights.”
An MIT engineer, Gang Chen — who was himself a target of Trump’s China Initiative which sought to uncover economic espionage — was one of many who signed an open letter from the AASF calling for the university to reinstate Wang and grant him due process.
Chen said Indiana University had “presumed guilt instead of innocence” in Wang’s case and said “the investigations have created huge fear among researchers of Chinese descent, from professors to students and postdocs.”
Ma and Wang are in search of answers and disheartened by what they feel is a betrayal by a country they have meaningfully contributed to for decades.
The SCMP wrote, “she [Ma] said, they had become the latest victims of government search warrants and unfounded accusations of academic misconduct – an ordeal that echoed the trauma of the China Initiative. The programme ended up targeting many academics, most of them loyal Chinese-Americans and lawful immigrants.”
