Update, February 22, 2023: This article has been updated to reflect the Hong Kong government’s decision to revoke He Jiankui’s visa.
Hong Kong’s government hoped to attract the world’s best talent when it announced a new two-year work permit for scientists, engineers and other high-earning professionals.
Yet the scheme attracted one famous—or infamous—applicant: He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who made headlines in 2018 for genetically modifying human embryos, and was later sentenced to three years in prison.
On Tuesday, days after the controversial scientist said Hong Kong had given him a work permit, the city’s government sheepishly admitted that it didn’t ask applicants for their criminal records—and then unceremoniously revoked He’s visa later that evening on suspicions that He had made false statements.
The episode is an embarrassing flub for a city desperate to recoup the talent it lost during the COVID pandemic and forced Hong Kong to change how it doles out visas; Hong Kong’s secretary of labor Chris Sun said Tuesday that the Hong Kong government will now ask applicants for their criminal records.
The debate over He’s Hong Kong visa is the latest development in the scientist’s comeback tour, as he tries to find a way back to scientific research after being released from prison last year.
He Jiankui made headlines in 2018 when he announced that he had genetically modified two twin girls using the CRISPR gene-editing technique. He said that he had hoped to make them immune to the HIV virus by tweaking one part of their genes. A similarly modified third baby was born soon after.
He’s revelation was controversial within the scientific community, which debated the ethics of gene-editing embryos that could not properly consent to the experiment.
The results of He’s experiment were never released, but one expert deemed draft copies obtained by the MIT Technology Review as having “egregious scientific and ethical lapses.”
His employer, the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, fired him in January 2019. He was later sentenced to three years in jail and fined $470,000 for “illegal medical practices” that December.
He was released from prison in April 2022. The scientist then revealed his future plans later that November, posting photos from “the first day for Jiankui He Lab” on social media.
In recent weeks, He has stepped up his efforts to rejoin the scientific community.
In an interview with the SCMP this month, He said that his team was committed to monitoring the health of the three test subjects for the rest of their lives. The team would also set up a charitable foundation to provide funds for any medical issues that may arise—a decision made, He admitted, because no private insurance agency was willing to cover the three gene-edited human children.
“I did it too quickly,” he told the SCMP.
But He’s other attempts to engage with the scientific community have gone poorly. In early February, He took part in an event at the University of Kent, billed as “the first time that Dr. He has agreed to interact with Chinese bioethicists and other CRISPR scientists in a public event.” Yet the scientist did not discuss his previous work, demanded that all questions be submitted via email, and refused to answer questions from the audience, according to Nature.
“I feel that I am not ready to talk about my experience in [the] past 3 years,” He later tweeted. The scientist then canceled two other international speaking engagements.
He announced in a WeChat post on Saturday that he was the lucky recipient of a visa under Hong Kong’s Top Talent Pass scheme, which grants a two-year visa to work in the city to high-earners and graduates from top global universities. (Mainland Chinese residents must get a permit to live and work in Hong Kong, as the semi-autonomous Chinese city preserves its own immigration and residency system).
He confirmed to the South China Morning Post on Monday that he had received the visa, adding that he was “optimistic” about the city’s future. Hong Kong launched the Top Talent Pass scheme last year to attract workers to the city after many foreigners and middle-class professionals left the city in part due to its COVID-zero policies.
In announcing his pending move to Hong Kong, He told the SCMP that he hoped to use A.I. to help “promote affordable gene therapy for rare diseases.” The scientist did not share who he would be working with.
The scientist may face new problems now that Hong Kong has revoked his work permit. A spokesperson for the city’s immigration department told the South China Morning Post that officials would launch “a follow-up criminal investigation,” and that anyone who “knowingly and deliberately declares false information,” could face prosecution.
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