The chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry department was arrested on charges of lying about receiving millions of dollars in Chinese funding, in an escalation of U.S. efforts to counter what officials said is a plot by Beijing to mine U.S. universities to catapult China to the forefront of scientific development.

A federal criminal complaint alleges that Charles Lieber, a pioneer in nanotechnology, misled the Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health about his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Plan...