UPDATE 1-U.S. charges Harvard professor with lying about role in Chinese research

The U.S. government on Tuesday charged a Harvard University department chair with lying about his dealings with Chinese research agencies while receiving federal research funding.

Prosecutors charged Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, with lying about his participation in China's Thousand Talents Plan. According to a court filing, Lieber made materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to the U.S. Department of Defense about his role in the plan, and to the National Institutes of Health about that role and also his affiliation with the Wuhan University of Technology in China.

Lieber was charged with one count of making false statements to a U.S. government agency, according to court records. He is one of a series of academics the United States has criminally charged for their dealings with China. Federal prosecutors last month accused a Chinese medical student of trying to smuggle cancer research specimens out of the country.