A Harvard University professor has been charged with lying about his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment programme and concealing payments he received from the Chinese government for research.

Charles Lieber, the chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology, is accused of hiding his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan, a programme designed to attract people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to the country.

Lieber was arrested at his office at the Ivy League university early on Tuesday, officials said. He remained in federal custody after a brief court appearance later in the day, pending a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday. A message seeking comment has been left with his attorney.

Authorities also announced charges against a researcher at Boston University, who is accused of lying about her ties to the Chinese military. Yanqing Ye, who prosecutors allege is a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army, worked on behalf of the military while studying at the university, conducting research and sending documents and information to China, officials say.

There was no attorney listed in court documents for Ye, who is in China.

The Massachusetts US attorney Andrew Lelling called the charges “a small sample of China’s ongoing campaign to siphon off America’s technology and knowhow for its country’s gain”.

“No country poses a greater, more severe or long-term threat to our national security and economic prosperity than China,” said Boston FBI agent Joseph Bonavolonta. “China’s communist government’s goal, simply put, is to replace the US as the world superpower, and they are breaking the law to get there.”

Under Lieber’s Thousand Talents programme contract, prosecutors say, he was paid $50,000 (£38,000) a month by the Wuhan University of Technology in China and living expenses up to $158,000. He was also awarded more than $1.5m to establish a research lab at the Chinese university, prosecutors said.

In exchange, prosecutors allege, Lieber agreed to publish articles, organise international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese university, among other things.

Lieber has been placed on administrative leave, Harvard officials said.

“The charges brought by the US government against Prof Lieber are extremely serious. Harvard is cooperating with federal authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, and is conducting its own review of the alleged misconduct,” the school said in a written statement.

Last month, a medical student from China, on a visa sponsored by Harvard, was also charged in Boston with trying to smuggle vials of research specimens to China in a sock in his suitcase.

“All of them were either directly or indirectly working for the Chinese government at our country’s expense,” Bonavolonta said of Lieber and the others who had been charged.

The cases underscore justice department concerns about Chinese programmes that recruit scientists with access to cutting-edge technology in the US and encourage them to conduct research for Beijing’s gain and even to steal the work of American academics.

In recent years, according to a Senate subcommittee report issued last year, the programs have been exploited by scientists who have downloaded sensitive research files before returning to China, filed patents based on US research, lied on grant applications and failed to disclose money they had received from Chinese institutions.

Critics, however, argue that federal restrictions to these programs can lead to racial profiling, drawing parallels to McCarthyism.

“In my experience almost all Chinese students are deeply patriotic,” Simon Marginson, a professor of education at Oxford University, told the South China Morning Post. “It does not make them ‘spies’ or ‘agents of influence’. These are ordinary human beings, not alien monsters.”

Marginson added that concerns about China’s conduct are “legitimate criticisms” but “reek of prejudice”.

In an interview with the Stanford Daily, Larry Diamond, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, insisted a balance can be reached.

“I think [TTP participation] should be a matter of public record,” he said. “Beyond that, [professors] might do a lot of good things for China in bringing back medical and scientific knowledge, improving human welfare and raising standards of living.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report