Ohio State Pays $2.1 Million After Hiding Professor's Ties to China's Talent Recruitment Program

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A Decade of Undisclosed Ties

Federal law has barred the use of NASA grant money for collaboration with Chinese state entities since 2011. Despite that rule, the Justice Department alleged that Ohio State's internal Faculty Activity Reports listed affiliations between Shum and Chinese universities and state-run research organizations as early as 2014 — but that information never reached NASA or the NSF.

The federal grants in question ran from November 2012 to August 2023, spanning more than a decade of research funding.

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The Thousand Talents Connection

In September 2019, Ohio State learned that Shum, a principal investigator on NASA-funded work, had joined China's Thousand Talents Program. Washington describes the program as a state-backed effort to recruit foreign scientists who have access to sensitive technology and intellectual property.

Shum acknowledged his participation to the university at the time. Yet Ohio State waited four more years, until 2023, to notify NASA and the NSF — a delay that became central to the federal case.

A second lab member, Yu Zhang, was also named in the settlement over affiliations with Chinese institutions and grant applications.

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University's Response

Ohio State says it uncovered the issue itself and reported it to federal authorities. In a statement, university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson said Ohio State suspended Shum's privileges as a principal investigator, froze spending on the affected grants, launched disciplinary proceedings, and repaid the government directly.

Ohio State officially terminated Shum's employment in January 2024 and repaid $254,661 to NASA and the NSF that same month. The university does not admit liability under the settlement terms, and the Justice Department noted there has been no formal determination of wrongdoing.

"Ohio State takes national security seriously," Johnson said, pointing to the university's research-compliance offices and mandatory conflict-of-interest disclosure systems.

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A Pattern Across U.S. Universities

Ohio State is not an isolated case. Since 2020, the Justice Department has reached several major settlements with universities and research institutions over undisclosed Chinese funding, including a $7.6 million settlement with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, $5.5 million with the Van Andel Research Institute, and $1.9 million with Stanford University.

Separately, former Ohio State rheumatology professor Song Guo Zheng was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison in 2021 after admitting he lied on grant applications to hide his own Thousand Talents Program membership while collecting $4.1 million in NIH funding.

"American universities that benefit from the federal government's support for scientific research and advancement must fully disclose all foreign funding in their grant applications," said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ's Civil Division.

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What Comes Next

The case adds to a growing list of federal actions targeting undisclosed foreign research ties at American universities, part of a broader effort by Washington to tighten oversight of academic funding sources tied to Beijing. With scrutiny of foreign research partnerships intensifying under current federal policy, more universities are likely to face similar reviews of their compliance histories in the coming months.

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Sources:

1. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs — "Ohio State University Agrees to $2.1M Settlement to Resolve Allegations that it Failed to Disclose Employees' Ties to the People's Republic of China in Applications for Federal Research Funding": https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ohio-state-university-agrees-21m-settlement-resolve-allegations-it-failed-disclose-employees
2. Fox News — "Ohio State pays $2.1M settlement as it admits researcher had 'inappropriate foreign affiliations' to China": https://www.foxnews.com/media/ohio-state-pays-2-1m-settlement-admits-researcher-had-inappropriate-foreign-affiliations-china
3. Washington Times — "Ohio State to pay $2.1 million settlement for unreported research funding from China": https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/31/ohio-state-pay-21-million-settlement-unreported-research-funding/

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