KU professor fired amid China Initiative sues to regain job

The University of Kansas fired a professor whom a jury convicted in 2022 as part of the first Trump administration’s controversial—and since discontinued—China Initiative. But Feng “Franklin” Tao managed to overturn those convictions, and he’s now suing KU to get his job back.

Lawyers representing Tao filed the lawsuit Friday against the university in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. Bloomberg Law reported earlier on the case. Tao is demanding reinstatement to his tenured position and damages for lost wages, reputational injury and more.

Republicans billed the China Initiative as a way to combat economic espionage. Democrats, advocates for Asian Americans and others said it was ineffective and justified racial profiling. Times Higher Education reported that the initiative, which focused on Chinese or Chinese American scholars, resulted in few convictions, and there were reversals, even among those initial prosecutorial wins. The Biden administration formally ended the initiative in early 2022, but some Republicans have recently pushed to revive it.

Tao’s lawsuit says he asked KU for reinstatement in July, and the university said he’d “have unpaid administrative status so that he could request an appeal” through the university’s processes. However, in September, the university again recommended dismissing him, the suit says. A KU spokesperson didn’t return requests for comment Tuesday.

Part of Tao’s problem may involve a 2020 agreement he signed alongside KU’s provost. That agreement, according to the suit, says “the parties agree that if the criminal proceeding results in a conviction, Dr. Tao’s dismissal as a tenured faculty member will be a final administrative action, and Dr. Tao waives his right to appeal … except with respect to the university’s decision to seek restitution.”

A lawyer representing Tao argued in 2022 that the convictions wouldn’t be final  until he had exhausted his appeals. Tao ultimately won his appeals.