BOSTON (REUTERS) - A Harvard University nanotechnology professor faces trial on Tuesday (Dec 14) on US charges that he lied to the authorities about his ties to a China-run recruitment programme and concealing funding he received from the Chinese government.

       Jury selection is slated to begin in Boston federal court in the trial of Charles Lieber, a former chair of Harvard's chemistry department charged in the highest-profile case to result from a US crackdown on Chinese influence within universities.

       Lieber, 62, has pleaded not guilty to six false statement and tax charges. His lawyer Marc Mukasey has said Lieber "didn't hide anything, and he didn't get paid as the government alleges".

       Prosecutors charged Lieber in January 2020 as part of the US Justice Department's "China Initiative", an effort launched during former president Donald Trump's administration to combat Chinese economic espionage and research theft.

       President Joe Biden's administration has not backed away from the initiative, despite critics who say it went too far in pursuing academics and that it overly targeted Chinese nationals, creating a perception of bias.

       The first trial of an academic - a Tennessee professor - ended in a mistrial and later an acquittal by a judge.

       Prosecutors this year dropped charges against six other researchers.

       Prosecutors said Lieber in 2011 became a "strategic scientist" at Wuhan University of Technology and, through it, participated in a Chinese recruitment initiative called the Thousand Talents Programme.

       The US authorities said China uses the programme to entice foreign researchers to share their knowledge with China in exchange for perks including research funding.

       As part of the programme, the Wuhan university gave Lieber more than US$1.5 million (S$2 million) to establish a Chinese lab and agreed to pay him US$50,000 a month plus US$150,000 in annual living expenses.

       Prosecutors said Lieber lied to investigators about his involvement in the programme and also misled Harvard, which in 2019 told the National Institutes of Health that he was not involved with it.

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