Lieber was contracted to take part in China's Thousand Talents Plan, a mass recruitment programme between 2012 and 2017. He was taking a lucrative salary from the Wuhan Institute of Technology too.
NASA, while responding to OpIndia's queries seeking clarification on the Diksha Shinde saga, said that she is neither employed by NASA nor has been awarded fellowship as that opportunity is only for US citizens.
Documents accessed by The Mail reveals that scientists at Wuhan Institute of Virology(WIV) teamed up with Chinese Army personnel to uncover the "dark matter" of biology responsible for the spread of animal viruses among humans.