Wang's wife asks 'What have we done to deserve this treatment?'
By WFIU/WTIU News Staff
Posted April 15, 2025
In her first public appearance since she and her husband were fired from Indiana University — and their homes were searched by the FBI — Nianli Ma said they are “loyal Chinese-Americans and lawful immigrants.”
Speaking on Monday at a virtual town hall about the political climate for Asian-American scholars, Ma said she has lost weight and had trouble sleeping.
On March 28, IU fired Ma’s husband, renowned computer security professor XiaoFeng Wang, and FBI agents carried out search warrants at their homes in Bloomington and Carmel. Wang was fired for what a colleague said was an allegation of failing to report research funding from China in 2017.
Days earlier, IU fired Ma, a systems analyst and programmer for IU libraries.
“I just can't understand how the university to which we dedicated over two decades of our lives could treat us like this without even telling us why or going through due process,” she said. “Yes, especially for my husband, who is a tenured professor, it hurts deeply that a country we trusted and contributed to for so long now treat us like criminals.
“I feel trapped in a constant state of worry and sadness. What have we done to deserve this treatment? We are just desperately seeking answers."
捐錢: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-indiana-university-professor-xiaofeng-wang
