New way of treating cancer will become more available across the country. Before you put handcuffs on someone and take them away that you have got to make sure that you have got your case together. And that the facts add up. Bill whitaker and in these cases . The facts didnt add up. Whitaker the u. S. Government has launched aggressive investigations and a greater number of prosecutions to stop the theft of american trade secrets by suspected chinese spies. But weve discovered the dragnet is ensnaring a growing number of americans who arent spies at all. Im steve kroft. Im leslie stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. This portion of 60 minutes is sponsored by ford. We go further, so you can. Life is a sport. We are the utility. The new ford escape. Be unstoppable. I accept i do a shorter set i acthese days. 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We have witnessed nearly miraculous recoveries and unexpected defeats on a journey of discovery beyond the known frontiers of science. Nancy justice had been sentenced to a bleak prognosis when we met her in october 2014. At age 58, she had recurrent glioblastoma. It had come back after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Typically she could expect to live seven months. The polio virus which mankind had fought to eradicate from the earth, was the last chance she had in the world. Nurse feel a tiny tug there. Pelley a half a teaspoon of polio flowed through a catheter inserted through nancys skull, directly into her tumor. Nurse ok. Ready to go . Nancy justice im ready, bring it on. Nurse were starting. Dr. Annick desjardins if you feel anything you let us know. Nancy justice i will definitely. Pelley her husband, greg, constantly inflated a buoyant optimism to save him from the weight of the unknown. Her glioblastoma was diagnosed in the 21st year of nancy and gregs marriage, just as the georgia couple could make out the finish line for zach and luke at college. Her tumor can double in size every two weeks. The tumor was aggressive Nancy Justice yes. Pelley so you wanted an aggressive treatment Nancy Justice yes. Yes. Pelley you are a medical explorer. Does it feel that way to you . Nancy justice im taking it one day at a time. It sounds very lofty to say medical explorer. But you know throughout all of this if this gives other people hope, im all for it. Pelley greg, you mentioned that nancy was there for every important event in the boys lives. Greg justice right. Pelley but there a lot of important events to come. Nancy justice exactly. Pelley what do you hope to see . Nancy justice so i am going to see those boys walk across the stage at their college graduation. I am going to see them get married. And i am going to see the grandkids, preferably in that order. And i know its, like, such a mom bucket list. But ill love every minute of it. The number of calls are increasing. Pelley this is dukes polio team, dr. Darell bigner, director of the tisch brain tumor center, molecular biologist Matthias Gromeier and neurooncologists dr. Henry friedman and dr. Annick desjardins. As is typical, the university has licensed this technology to Research Dollars to the therapy and all the members of the team are investors. Dr. Henry friedman good to see that this is going well. Pelley dr. Friedman screens more than 1,000 glioblastoma patients a year who would like to be treated at duke. He helps decide who meets the criteria for the polio trial. I wonder of all the trials and all of the theories and all of the treatments that you have hoped for all of these years, how does this stack up . Friedman this, to me, is the most promising therapy ive seen in my career, period. Pelley the virus is the creation of, the obsession of doctor gromeier, who has been laboring over this for more than 25 years, the last 15 at duke. When you went to your colleagues and said, ive got it. Well use the polio virus to kill cancer. What did they say . Dr. Matthias gromeier well, i got a range of responses from, all kinds of things. Most people just thought it was too dangerous. Friedman i thought he was nuts. I mean, i really thought that what he was using is a weapon that produces paralysis. Pelley other researchers are experimenting with cancer treatments using viruses including h. I. V. , smallpox, and measles. But polio was dr. Gromeiers choice because, as luck would have it, it seeks out and attaches to a receptor that is found on the surface of the cells that make up nearly every kind of solid tumor. Its almost as if polio had evolved for the purpose. Gromeier reengineered the virus, removing a key genetic sequence. The virus cant survive this way so he repaired the damage with a harmless bit of cold virus. This new modified poliovirus cant cause paralysis or death because it cant reproduce in normal cells. But in cancer cells it does and in the process of replicating it releases toxins that poison the cell. At least thats what they had observed in the laboratory. Eventually, they had to try it in a human being. Its a hell of a thing to be told that you have months to live when youre 20 years old. In 2011, Stephanie Lipscomb was a Nursing Student with headaches. A doctor told her she had this glioblastoma tumor the size of a tennis ball. Stephanie lipscomb i looked at the nurse that was sitting there holding my hand and i said, i dont understand. Like, what did he just say . It was kind of hard for me to process. Pelley you had 98 of the tumor removed. Lipscomb exactly. Pelley as much radiation as you can have in a lifetime. And chemotherapy. Lipscomb exactly. Pelley and then in 2012, what did the doctors tell you . Lipscomb your cancers back. Pelley with recurrent glioblastoma, there were no options except the one that had never been tried. Did they tell you that it had never been tried in a human being before . Lipscomb they did. But at the same time, i had nothing to lose, honestly. Pelley her polio treatment began in 2012 and from the very beginning, it looked like a bad bet. Desjardins so we treated her in may. Then in july the tumor looked bigger, looked really inflamed. I got really concerned, got really worried. Pelley you thought this wasnt working. Desjardins i thought it wasnt working. Pelley neurooncologist Annick Desjardins wanted to abandon the polio experiment and return to traditional treatment. But stephanie said no. Five months after her infusion, an m. R. I. Showed the tumor only looked worse because of inflammation caused by stephanies immune system, which had awakened to the the first time and gone to war. Why didnt the immune system react to the cancer to begin with . Gromeier so cancers all human cancers, they develop a shield or shroud of protective measures that make them invisible to the immune system. And this is precisely what we try to reverse with our virus. So by infecting the tumor, we are actually removing this protective shield. And telling the enabling the immune system to come in and attack. Pelley so essentially whats happening here inside the tumor is you have a polio infection. Gromeier yes. Pelley and that sets off an alarm gromeier yes. Pelley for the immune system. Gromeier yes. Pelley the immune system says, theres a polio infection. We better go kill it. Gromeier exactly. Pelley and it turns out its the tumor. Gromeier yes. Pelley it appears the polio starts the killing but the immune system does most of the damage. Stephas months until it was gone. Three years after the infusion, something unimaginable had happened. This is from an m. R. I. In august, 2014. And theres no cancer in this picture at all. Desjardins and we dont see any cancer, active cancer cells. Pelley she is cancer free. All that remains is this hole from an early surgery. How surprised are you by that . Friedman im surprised because you never expect on a phase one study in particular to have these kinds of results. Pelley youre not expecting to cure people in a phase one trial. Friedman youre not even necessarily expecting to help them. You hope so. But thats not the design of a phase one study. Its designed to get the right dose. When you get anything on top of that, its cake. Pelley quite a cake. Friedman quite a cake. Biggest cake we have seen in a long, long time. Pelley dr. Fritz andersen showed us the results in another patient himself. Hes a retired cardiologist and at age 70, he became the second person in the polio trial. Dr. Fritz andersen this is a fairly sizeable temporal tumor, which means pelley that we see right here. On the left is his tumor before treatment, on the right a hairline scar where it used to be. That was nearly three years ago. Do you consider yourself cured . Or do you call it remission . Andersen i feel it is a cure, and i live my life that way. Pelley after the early successes, the next patients would receive a higher dose. Thats the whole idea behind a phase one trial to increase the dose in succeeding patients, step by st, in search of the highest dose that is still safe. Friedman we believe in the philosophy weve learned in chemotherapy that more is better. So if we were getting a good response at dose level one or dose level two, then go to dose level three, four, five. Pelley 60year old donna clegg was a social worker from idaho. We met her in 2014, puffy from the steroids used to reduce the swelling in her brain. Donna clegg i want to be able to live. So thats kind of how i feel, that this is going to be my opportunity to have a full life. Pelley donnas polio infusion was three times more potent than the one that had worked for stephanie. But in her case, this higher dose set off an immune response that was much too powerful. Donna battled the inflammation for nine months, before she died in march 2015. Donna clegg suffered quite a lot. And i wonder how that weighs on your mind . Friedman every patient who has an outcome that is not positive weighs on my mind. I think that when youre doing a phase one study, you know that these things can happen. But she is a patient who really did not derive benefit and yet taught us something important. Pelley you discovered that putting in too much poliovirus created too large an immune response . Friedman absolutely. Pelley after that hard of Nancy Justices dose by 85 . It was less than they had ever expected to use. They called this new dose, dose minus one. But even so, 4. 5 months after her infusion, in march 2015, inflammation had caused the mass in nancys brain to double in size. But to dr. Desjardins, the tumor looked weaker. And in this image, its shot through full of holes. Desjardins its shot through full of holes. And let me show you the next picture and youll see its even Gregory Justice wow. Desjardins more and more holes. Pelley so where does this go from here . Desjardins so now, we keep following her. And hopefully it keeps shrinking and it keeps collapsing. And thats what we have seen with fritz and stephanie, that it continued shrinking for years. Pelley nancy, when you look at this, what do you think . Nancy justice oh, its amazing. Oh my gosh. Im mean, thank you lord. And these doctors. Thank you doctors. You know, and to just see this, um, you know, thats life. Pelley Nancy Justice faces a hard road ahead, but along the way new discoveries will take the researchers in a direction they never imagined. Cbs money watch update correspondents rd by lincoln financial. Youre in charge. Quijano good evening. Inflation figures out tuesday could influence whether the fed raises Interest Rates next month. Venezuelas president extended his countrys economic state of emergency by 60 days. And one of princes guitars will be auctioned off next month starting at 30,000. Im elaine quijano, cbs news. Unless you have allergies. Flonase is the first and only nasal spray approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. No other nasal allergy spray can say that. Go ahead, embrace those beautiful moments. Flonase changes everything. When agerelated macular have degeneration, amd we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression. And everywhere i look. Im reminded to stick to my plan. Including Preservision Areds 2. 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If that goes well, duke will be allowed to skip the third phase of the trial and make polio therapy for glioblastoma available to all. The route to this achievement was not a straight line. The first volunteers saw their tumors disappear. But later, patients suffered crippling setbacks. There was a way forward but researchers found themselves on a path they had not imagined. Their guide through the mystery was a patient nad riley and connor, from mom and dad. Pelley on christmas eve, 2009, Brendan Steele could not know how precious the gift of life would be. At 37, he was an i. T. Manager in montana, a husband and father of three. But then doctors found glioblastoma and gave him 11 months to say goodbye. When surgery, radiation and chemotherapy failed, brendan volunteered for dukes polio trial and in 2013, he received the six hour poliovirus infusion. But in removing the catheter a blood vessel was severed. His wife kathy was by his side. Kathy Steele Brendan said, its weird. And he goes to hold his head and weird just kind of drained out. Like, that was the end of his speech. Pelley you understood how bad off you were . Brendan steele no. Pelley no . Brendan steele no, because i dont remember. Pelley emergency surgery stopped the bleeding, but the trauma left brendan barely able to walk or talk. Seven months later, a biopsy revealed that his tumor was growing. Doctors gave brendan chemotherapy. It had failed him before, but it might give him just a few more weeks. Neurooncologist Annick Desjardins did not imagine what happened next. Dr. Annick desjardins we gave him one dose of chemotherapy. And the lesion just melted. Went away. Rapidly. Which we dont see that happen normally. Pelley two months after that single dose of chemo, the tumor the white mass on the right started to break up. Brendan continued the chemotherapy and in eight months, it was gone. And what did the doctors tell you about your cancer today . Brendan steele no cancer. No cancer. Glioblastoma and now they tell you they cannot find it in your brain . Brendan steele yep. Pelley Brendan Steele has lived 35 months since his polio infusion. Hes been cancer free for 19. Dr. Henry friedman, Deputy Director of dukes cancer center, has a theory about why the chemo worked this time, when it never had before. Dr. Henry friedman shockingly, chemotherapy in patients who have previously failed it, once theyve had the poliovirus therapy, now seem to have a new enhanced, almost extraordinary response to the chemotherapy as if the poliovirus has set up the tumor to be more responsive to chemotherapy. Pelley that was a surprise . Friedman that was a surprise. And for us to see this, it was a stunning observation, that is actually the platform for a future study that will involve chemotherapy and the poliovirus. Pelley the discovery changed youll remember when we last saw nancy in march, 2015, dr. Desjardins saw signs her tumor was breaking up. But, in the months that followed, the inflammation kept growing. As nancys brain compressed, she was losing the connection to her arm, her legs and her relationship to the very space around her. Nurse and touch your nose. Here. Nancy justice like this . Nurse yep. Touch your nose. Pelley whatever part of the brain involves the will to fight, appeared to be unaffected. Now, would a single dose of chemo have the same miraculous result as it did for Brendan Steele . Dr. Desjardins reached for their New Discovery and within two months, the mass was shrinking. Desjardins see how the folds of the brain are back when they were all squished up . Nancy justice oh wow. Desjardins the ventr iicles reopening. Greg justice look at that. Hallelujah now, thats what were looking for honey pelley h d loved it. Love, i mean, thats what wed been working for, praying for. Pelley tumors getting smaller and smaller and less. Greg justice somebody had taken an eraser to it. Pelley as the inflammation retreated, there was new space for hope. Therapist up, up, up, up, up. Elbows straight. Elbows straight. Greg justice look at the speed, honey. Pelley nancy found strength and, buoyed, always, by her husband greg, she walked up to a mile a day. Nancys life was covering a distance of time denied to glioblastoma patients. But last february, 15 months after her infusion of polio, her run met another hurdle. Desjardins just a little more inflammation. Pelley the day her journey began she told us she would see her sons graduate, be married and have children, in that order, she joked, now determination was nuanced with gratitude for what shed had already. Nancy, when we met you the first time, i asked you about your mom bucket list. How are those weddings and grandkids looking to you now . Nancy justice laughs okay. So, right now, im thinking its just the simple things right now that i enjoy. Pelley seven weeks after that interview, in late march, nancy was rushed back to duke. The light that never dimmed was in her eyes but her words were gone. This is what she was fighting. The inflammation engulfed half her brain. Friedman i just think we need to know what we are dealing with so we can move. Pelley neurosurgeon Allan Friedman needed to find out if the mass was a buildup of dead cells from the immune response or active cancer. He slipped a needle into her brain to extract a b of tissue. Friedman thank you. See you back there in a second. Pelley the tissue was rushed to the Pathology Lab where a microscope discovered dead cells where the polio was working, but also regrowth of the tumor. Glioblastoma had found a way back. Desjardins hey nancy, how are you doing . Pelley 17 months after we first met nancy, doctors Allan Friedman and Annick Desjardins explained to greg that nancys tumor had now infiltrated parts of her brain responsible for breathing and cognition. Desjardins shes getting worse and maybe its the time where we cannot do anything anymore to help her. And we need to let her go. And we love you, you know that, right . We wondered whether greg would do it all again. Greg justice definitely, we would do it. Nancy would have been gone long ago. And i think its given us some good time. And we appreciate that. Pelley on april 6th, Nancy Justice, medical explorer, passed away at the age of 60. Shed had nine more months than she could have expected. What did nancy teach you . Desjardins from the treatment standpoint, what she taught us is two different things. So clearly, the combination of the poliovirus with the chemotherapy had, at first, an amazing response. We need to understand that. The next thing is, at some point though, it stopped working. And why did that happen . Pelley what the duke team has learned is that inflammation is an unavoidable consequence of the immune systems attack in most patients, and that managing it with drugs will likely be a key to survival. So far there have been 21 patients at this lowest dose, minus one. Friedman yes. Pelley eight of them have died. Friedman yes. Pelley put that in perspective for me. Friedman all the ones who havent died, on a phase one trial, is simply remarkable. And to see positive results in terms of controlling a tumor or with recurrent disease on a phase one trial is remarkable. Its not your goal, its not your expectation. But it certainly is something that when you see it, you say this is really terrific. This is special. Pelley apparently, the f. D. A. Saw Something Special too. Breakthrough status was granted after data showed that patients who had been living an average of 10 months were living an average of 15 months. And three patients, showed no sign of cancer at all after three years. Dr. Darell bigner, who runs dukes brain tumor center, has fought glioblastoma for 50 years. When you talk of median survival being extended from 10 months to 15 months, for some of these patients, its 15 months and counting. Dr. Darell bigner yes. Pelley theyre still living. Bigner yes. Yes and we still have got significant periods of high quality survival. And that is a huge difference. And then we have patients like stephanie, fritz and brendan that are leading virtually normal lives. I mean, they probably go many days without even thinking about having had a glioblastoma, which is just amazing. Pelley you were in medical school thinking about one day being able to beat glioblastoma. And now you are standing on this doorstep. What does that mean to you personally . Bigner its an enormous feeling. And i have to be very careful. I never want to give anyone false hope. But i see all of the science coming together now. And i know its going to happen. I have never felt that way until now. Pelley and in an amazing new development, this science may be coming together for an entire range of cancers. In the laboratory, duke has used polio to kill cancer cells of the skin, pancreas, stomach, lung, colon and prostate. Immunologist dr. Smita nair showed us what polio did to Breast Cancer in mice. Dr. Smita nair this is Breast Cancer tissue. And what we find is, if you look at this is, here is a tumor that got injected with polio virus. Here is a tumor that go injected with just saline. And the difference in the tumor size is extremely visible here. Pelley night and day. Nair we kept seeing this. So we went back and asked the question, what is happening in the tumors . And we teased these tumors apart. And what we found were a lot of tcells in the tumor. Pelley immune system cells . Nair immune system cells. Pelley dr. Nair has filmed immune system tcells, shown here in color, breaking apart a tumor cell. What you see took a little over one hour. This leads dr. Nair and others once immune cells are programmed to recognize a cancer, will they remember and attack that cancer everywhere in the body for a lifetime . Nair if you get a tumor again, these are memory tcells, they will remember that. And they can eliminate a recurrent or a metastatic tumor. Pelley how long does it take typically to get from this mouse stage into a human trial . Nair i would say anything between three to five years. It takes some time. Pelley well, go back to work and stop talking to me. Nair thats what i will do. Thats what i think i should do. Remember two months ago you couldnt lift that heel. Pelley there is much left to learn. Why do some patients suffer and die while others given months to live appear to have a complete recovery . Three years after his polio treatment, Brendan Steele remains cancer free and hes determined to overcome the damage from his surgery. A conviction that he keeps wi a its not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get up. Great words to live by. Brendan steele yeah. Yeah. I remind myself every day. Get up. Get up. Pelley four years after his polio therapy, 73year old Fritz Andersen is traveling the world with his wife. Andersen i am alive because of it. If i had not received it, i dont think i would be here today. Pelley and Stephanie Lipscomb, patient number one in the Clinical Trial four years ago, has now become a nurse. Lipscomb do you remember me coming in this morning, i know you were sleepy . Patient yes. Pelley you told us before that being a cancer patient would probably make you a better nurse. And i wonder, has it . Lipscomb oh yes. To talk to my patients and tell them, look, ive been, ive been in the hospital, ive been sick like this. I can just see the hope in the pelley where do you want to take your nursing career . Lipscomb pediatric oncology. Pelley kids with cancer. Lipscomb yes sir. Because i was 20 when i was diagnosed. I wasnt really completely an adult. And i absolutely love kids. With this unique experience of surviving stage iv cancer in my brain. If i dont do this, then its kind of like a waste. A waste of being cancer free. Pelley you think you survived for a reason . Lipscomb oh yes, most definitely. Caring for someone with alzheimers means i am a lot of things. I am his sunshine. I am his advocate. So i asked about adding oncedaily namenda xr to his Current Treatment for moderate to severe alzheimers. It works differently. When added to another alzheimers treatment, it may improve overall function and cognition. Vo namenda xr doesnt change how the disease progresses. It shouldnt be taken by anyone allergic to memantine, or whos had a bad reaction to namenda xr or its ingredients. 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Only at a sleep number store. Bill whitaker this past january on 60 minutes, we espionage, orchestrated by china, to rip off american trade secrets and intellectual property. The Justice Department considers it a National Security emergency costing our economy hundreds of billions of dollars. Three years ago, the u. S. Government launched a new strategy to fight back with more aggressive investigations and a greater number of prosecutions. Weve discovered the dragnet isnt just catching chinese spies, its ensnaring a growing number of americans who arent spies at all. Xiaoxing xi it was so urgent, the pounding was so urgent that i run here to open the door without even being fully dressed. Whitaker last may, the f. B. I. Paid an Early Morning visit to scientist xiaoxing xi at his home in suburban philadelphia. Xi so i opened the door, and so i see a lot of people outside. Whitaker they have on bulletproof vests . Xi yes, they did, yeah, and with guns. Whitaker xi is chair of the Temple University physics department. But the f. B. I. Was convinced he was a spy, passing hitech american secrets to china. He was stunned when agents burst in and handcuffed him. Did you have any idea what was going on, why they were here . Xi no. I had absolutely no idea. So, the very first thing that went through my mind was this must be a mistake. Whitaker xi couldnt believe this was happening to him in the u. S. He was born in china and raised during the cultural revolution, a time when families feared an unexpected knock on the door. His father, a lawyer, was taken away to a forced labor camp. As an adult, xi came to the u. S. To live and work in a free country. Why did you become an american citizen . Xi my children were born in this country. My home is in this country. My career is in this country. So it just feels natural that i should become a citizen. Whitaker xi established himself as a world leader in the study of superconductors that could help improve mris. He managed nine Government Research projects and more than 1 million in federal funding. So this is your lab . Xi yes. This is one whitaker one of your labs. Xi one of my labs. Yes. Whitaker the arrest had a swift impact. Temple told him to stay home. He was removed as the Principal Investigator of his own research. Whats going through your mind . Xi so i was saying to myself, theyre going to put me in jail, and all of these things that i have been working for years, was coming to an end. Whitaker so tell me about the day you were arrested. Sherry chen my life was turned upside down. Whitaker sherry chens life was also turned upside down when federal prosecutors suspec shes been a u. S. Citizen for 19 years and has devoted her career to public service, as a flood forecaster in the state of missouri and, most recently, with the National Weather service in ohio. You were proud of your work . Chen yeah, i do. I really put my heart into my work. Whitaker chen showed us the award she won for helping to save the city of cairo, illinois from record flooding in the spring of 2011. Armed with her forecast, the army corps of engineers blew up a levee and rerouted floodwaters. What did you feel about that when cairo was spared . Chen im proud of that, my knowledge, my work could really protect the properties and saving peoples lives. Whitaker but, three years later, chen says f. B. I. Agents marched her out of her office in handcuffs. Chen i saw my coworkers all looking through the windows. And watched me being taken away. Peter zeidenberg i think prosecutors are feeling pressure to bring these cases. I think investigators are excited about bringing cases that may be high profile. Whitaker attorney Peter Zeidenberg is a former federal prosecutor who represents both xiaoxing xi and sherry chen. He believes both american citizens are Collateral Damage in the governments war against chinese economic espionage. That fear of chinese economic espionage its not unfounded. Zeidenberg no, im not suggesting that it is. What im suggesting is, notwithstanding that fact, before you put handcuffs on someone and take them away that you have got to make sure that you have got your case together. And that the facts add up. Whitaker and in these cases . Zeidenberg the facts didnt add up. Whitaker xiaoxing xi faced a Justice Department narrative wo o prosecutors accused him of collaborating with various Government Entities in china of scheming for years to obtain revolutionary american technology, and emailing photos and blueprints of that technology to the chinese, specifically this American Made device, called a pocket heater. Its used to make a superfine coating that maximizes the flow of electricity. In exchange, prosecutors said he would be showered with money, property and prestige in china. Xi the very first words coming out of my mouth was, thats absurd. Thats really absurd. Whitaker why . It turns out the device xi was discussing with his chinese academic counterparts wasnt a pocket heater. It was a completely different heating device that xi was developing. He had planned to share it in scientific publications. It was an earlier generation of this one. Pocket heater that we have been talking about . Xi not at all. It is very different from the pocket heater. Whitaker so when it comes to the science, it sounds like the federal investigators flat out got it wrong . Zeidenberg thats correct. Whitaker and then theres this prosecutors alleged that xis collaboration with chinese scientists was somehow sinister. In reality, it was mandated by one of his grants from the National Science foundation. So your funding was dependent on your working with chinese scientists . Xi yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Whitaker so one arm of the government wants you to collaborate and the other arm of the government says its a crime . Xi indeed, indeed. Yes. Whitaker yet, he faced 80 years in prison. What was that like . Xi it put a lot of stress and this daily stress sometimes become strikingly unbearable. So, i remember pleading with my family. Let, lets, lets try not to fold. If we hold on, we have the truth. If we fold, we will have nothing. Whitaker four months after xis arrest, his lawyer Peter Zeidenberg pointed out the inconsistencies to the u. S. Attorneys office in philadelphia. Three weeks later, they dropped the case. Zeidenberg sees disturbing parallels with sherry chens case. So how did she get in trouble . Zeidenberg the story started when she went to china to visit her parents. She had a somewhat happenstance meeting with a former classmate of hers, a vice minister in the water ministry. Whitaker the vice minister asked chen how the u. S. Pays for dam repairs. Did you think there was anything, i dont know, secretive about that information . Chen its never crossed my mind. Its not a secret. Whitaker when chen got back to ohio, she asked her boss for publicly available information, which she did send to her former classmate. She also searched this government database. Since she wasnt a regular user, chen borrowed a password from her colleague. Sharing passwords was common in the office. She never sent information from the database to china but federal prosecutors charged chen with illegally accessing and stealing restricted information. Prosecutors also charged her with lying about the password. Chen initially denied that a colleague had emailed it to her but she remembered after investigators showed her the e mail. Her colleague, ray davis, initially forgot too. Charged with misremembering or failing to remember giving her the password. He only remembered it when they showed him the email and he said, literally, oh god, that was almost a year ago. I forgot all about that. Whitaker wasnt that sherrys reaction as well . Zeidenberg it was. Whitaker why the disparate reactions from the government . Zeidenberg you know, the fact is sherry chen is a chinese american and her colleague was caucasian. And with sherry, everything she did, they looked at as somehow nefarious or somehow corrupt. Whitaker you say it was forgetfulness and they say its a lie . Chen but to others its normal. You can, forgetting something. For me its a crime. Whitaker chen faced 40 years in prison for lying about the password and accessing the database. The week before the trial, zeidenberg took his case to carter stewart, who was the u. S. Atto the next day, stewart dropped the charges. We found, since 2012, the Justice Department has won convictions in 14 cases related to chinese economic espionage. It lost one case at trial. Charges were dropped against five chinese born scientists, all american citizens. Xi the fact that they would suspect us stealing secret for china is very offensive. Were american. Whitaker more than 40 members of congress have called on the Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation of whether xi and chen were targeted because of race. The Justice Department wouldnt speak to us on camera but, in a statement, said we investigate and prosecute individuals based on known or suspected criminal activities or threats to National Security, not based on race, ethnicity or national origin. Chinese theft of american trade secrets is a real problem. Excuse me, can i help you . Forgive us. Whitaker the f. B. I. Made this video to alert agents, prosecutors, and the public. The agency says its based on real events. Go, go f. B. I. f. B. I. there are a ton of ways the government can come at you. Whitaker its all having a chilling effect. Some of the most prominent chineseamericans are holding seminars around the country to caution scientists that activities they consider innocent could look like espionage. If youre going to take something and give it as part of a talk at beijing university or something, you have got to think twice because some people might look at that as being nefarious. Whitaker this past march, a year after her case was dropped, sherry chen was fired from her job for untrustworthiness, lack of cdo issues stemming from her criminal investigation. So why wont the National Weather service give you your job back . Chen i dont know. Im a dedicated worker. I didnt do anything wrong. And i love my job. Whitaker in an email, her employer said the facts fully support the action taken in this case. Chen has appealed. After spending about 200,000 to clear his name, xiaoxing xi was welcomed back at Temple University though he will no longer serve as chair of the physics department. He worries that lingering suspicions could jeopardize future government funding, the lifeblood of his work. Do you think the u. S. Government owes you an apology . Xi i do think so. I didnt do anything wrong but through this. I think we deserve some kind of apology. And, you know, its not over, right. The scars from this traumatic experience is so deep that its going to be with us for the rest of our life. Whitaker after its experience with professor xi and sherry chen, the Justice Department tightened up its oversight and made explicit that every espionage case must be approved and supervised by headquarters in washington. Tonight, after 60 minutes, marking the retirement of morley safer. How do you celebrate 46 years of excellence . Go to sixtyminutesovertime. Com, sponsored by viagra. Viagra single packs. So guys with ed can. Take viagra when they need it. Ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Monary hypertension. 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Join for free by may 16th and get one month free. Wireless world today could use a smile . Ke the at cricket wireless, we think so. Thats why, prices for plans are all in, taxes and fees included. And weve got more 4g lte coverage nationwide than tmobile or sprint. Thats a whote lotta network for not a lot a dough. Its what makes cricket the happiest place in the whole wireless world. Steve kroft after 46 years with 60 minutes, and 52 years with cbs news, our friend and colleague morley safer announced his retirement this past wednesday. And a sharp eye for the phony and pretentious are like no others in broadcast news. We couldnt let morley go without a celebration of all things safer. Please stick around, its coming up next. Im steve kroft. Well be back in a few minutes with a special edition of 60 minutes morley safer a reporters life. Life is a sport. We are the utility. The new ford escape. Be unstoppable. Captioning funded by cbs and ford. We go further, so you can