Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University’s chemistry department, was charged for failing to disclose millions in Chinese funding. Two Chinese nationals who were researchers at Boston University and a Boston hospital were also criminally charged for their dealings with China. (The Wall Street Journal, Reuters)

Talking point: U.S. prosecutors have brought forward a series of cases recently alleging that researchers at American universities and labs didn’t disclose funding sources, or tried to steal information to take to China. Although Lieber hasn’t been charged with espionage, his arrest is the latest in the escalating tensions between the two countries, which has seen the U.S. accuse China of employing academia as a tool in distorting global trade. Andrew Lelling, Boston’s top federal prosecutor, called the actions of the researchers who were charged “a very carefully directed effort by the Chinese government to fill what it views as its own strategic gaps.”