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Comment by blowski | Hacker News Reader

This article is more than a year old. For an update, and debunking of the conspiratorial sentiment, see Snopes:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charles-lieber-arrested-co...

> In short: Lieber was arrested for lying to authorities about his involvement with a Chinese government program to recruit and cultivate scientific talent.

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What about OP's article does snopes debunk?

> In short: The DOJ announced three separate arrests in January 2020. The first was Lieber. The second involved Yanqing Ye, a lieutenant in the Chinese army accused of stealing U.S. research. And third was Zaosong Zheng, who stole 21 vials of biological research. While these three arrests all involve people lying about their ties to China, they took place at different universities and are not related.

I assume that someone (possibly with encouragement from the Trump Whitehouse) put out the rumour that they were connected to some larger COVID-related conspiracy.

> While these three arrests all involve people lying about their ties to China, they took place at different universities and are not related.

Isn't that completely in line with what the article says?

Title of the article: "Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases"

The article doesn't mention covid.

The article’s title also doesn’t mention Wuhan. That the submission here specifically called it out makes me think it’s implying the same conspiracy Snopes has debunked.

My questions is why was it posted on HN? Especially today. Unless OP gives a compelling reason, I have to assume it was to further encourage that rumor.

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