Chinese American woman accused of spying released for inadequate evidence

A five-month-ordeal for Sherry Chen, a 59-year-old hydrologist for the federal government in Ohio, ended abruptly when prosecutors dismissed charges of economic espionage on March 11 due to insufficient evidence.

Chen, whose given name is Xiafen, is a hydrologist for the federal government in Ohio and an adoptive Midwesterner.

As an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who had received awards for her government service, Chen never thought of being suspected of being a Chinese spy and getting arrested last October for accusations of theft, illegally accessing a federal database and two counts of making false statements to investigators.

Chen was led in handcuffs past her co-workers to a federal courthouse 40 miles (65 kilometers) away in Dayton, where she was told she faced 25 years in prison and 1 million U.S. dollars in fines.

"I could not sleep," Chen told the New York Times newspaper, "I could not eat. I did nothing but cry for days."

Then five months later in March, just a week before she was scheduled to go on trial, prosecutors dropped all charges against Chen without explanation.

Chen's case is one of the many under U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy to fight trade-secret theft, with Chinese and Chinese enterprises on top of its target list.

"They came across a person of Chinese descent and a little bit of evidence that they may have been trying to benefit the Chinese government, but it's clear there was a little bit of Red Scare and racism involved," said Peter J. Toren, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in computer crimes and industrial espionage.

Interviews conducted by the newspaper with Chen and her former colleagues and a review of court filings, which include a year's worth of Chen's work and personal emails, suggest that prosecutors hunted for evidence of espionage, failed and settled on lesser charges that they eventually dropped.

Chen was known to be tenacious in her pursuit of data for her predictions. She developed carpal-tunnel syndrome in her right hand from eight years of repetitive mouse clicks. Thomas Adams, who hired Chen at the National Weather Service in 2007, said her fascination with data made her perfect for the job.

Adams said he thought that Chen's Chinese background played a role. "If this had been you or me or someone of European descent who borrowed someone else's password, they would have said 'Don't do this again.'"

"This is the gratitude the government has shown for her hard work and dedication as a federal public servant. It's shameful," he ridiculed.

Chen was caught in a much broader dragnet aimed at combating Chinese industrial espionage.

According to an FBI report last year, law enforcement investigations into trade-secret theft are now at record levels, jumping 60 percent between 2009 and 2013.

"If you're looking everywhere for spies, you will find spies everywhere, even where they don't exist," said former computer-crimes prosecutor Mr. Rasch, which revealed the U.S. paranoia and witch hunt against China.