Chinese doctor accused of attempting to smuggle cancer research from US to China

A Chinese doctor was busted in Texas for allegedly trying to smuggle cancer-related research back to China. 

Yunhai Li – a 35-year-old employed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center since 2022 – was confronted at an airport by officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on July 9, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. 

The office said the authorities working in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations "found evidence Li was attempting to take sensitive medical information abroad during an inspection of his belongings." 

"We were able to detain him as he was trying to get on a flight to China," Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told Fox26 Houston. "That intellectual property stays with us, so we can save lives." 

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Li was charged with theft of trade secrets and tampering with a government record. The theft charge carries a penalty of two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. 

The Attorney’s Office said Li was staying in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant research scholar exchange visa provided by the State Department. The research he was working on was funded through the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, it added. 

Court documents viewed by Fox26Houston said Li uploaded sensitive data to his personal Google Drive account while working for MD Anderson, and when the institution found out about it and confronted him, he deleted the files. 

However, the documents added that Li also uploaded the data to a file-hosting service based on a Chinese server. 

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On that storage drive, investigators found "unpublished research data and articles representing trade secrets, including material-restricted confidential research data, writings, drawings and models," according to Fox26 Houston. 

The station, citing the court documents, also reported that Li was receiving grant fundingthrough the National Natural Science Foundation of China and was performing research for The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University before and during his employment with MD Anderson – yet did not disclose the conflict of interest to his U.S. employers. 

"I believe I have the right to possess and retain this data," Li was quoted by Fox26 Houston as saying in a sworn statement contained in the court documents. 

 

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Li has since posted $5,100 bail and bonded out of jail on Monday, surrendering his passport, the station reported.