Xi Xiaoxing, a Chinese American professor at Temple University and renowned expert on superconductors, filed a federal lawsuit against FBI agent Andrew Haugen on Wednesday, accusing him of falsifying key evidence in allegations that Xi had leaked the technology of a pocket heater to China, NBC News and The New York Times reported.
According to Xi's lawyers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the Chinese-born scientist as a potential spy. Agents stormed his house in the Philadelphia suburbs and arrested him in the early hours of May 21, 2015. His wife and two daughters were held at gunpoint as a handcuffed Xi was led away.
The professor faced four charges of wire fraud that accused him of attempting to help Chinese researchers become "world leaders of the superconductivity field," by sharing blueprints of a pocket heater with them through email communication.
However, the case collapsed months later after leading physicists testified that the blueprints were not for a pocket heater, but a device invented by Xi.
"It was obvious to anyone who looked carefully that Professor Xi had not sent any information about the technology that he was charged with unlawfully sharing," Jonathan Feinberg, one of Xi's lawyers, told NBC News.
In his lawsuit, Xi said the incident was costly for him: He was suspended from his job at Temple University, lost his title as the interim chair of the university's Physics Department and was prohibited from entering campus or speaking with students.
He continued to fear "all the time" that the FBI was watching everything he was doing even after returning to teaching.
"My case has made so many scientists scared," Xi said in an interview. "It has made so many Chinese Americans and Asian Americans scared. That's why we are doing this. We need some accountability."
He requested an apology from the FBI agents who had violently arrested him and turned his life upside down, though understanding that "they will probably never apologize."
Xi, who got a doctorate in physics at Peking University in the Chinese capital in 1987, is among several Chinese American scientists who had federal criminal indictments dismissed in recent years.
Last year, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) sent a letter to the US Justice Department, demanding an independent investigation into whether race, ethnicity, or national origin played a part in those cases.
"In the cases of Sherry Chen, Xi Xiaoxing, Cao Guoqing, and Li Shuyu, each were accused of espionage-related crimes only to have all charges against them later dropped," CAPAC Chair Judy Chu stressed. "Their lives were turned upside down simply because they were emailing while being Asian American."
