Sorry , no Chinese researchers allowed ! Oh wait , seems like that was a misunderstanding . Please do come . NASA 's management apparently misinterpreted a security law when it barred Chinese researchers from attending the space agency 's Kepler Science Conference in November , China 's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday . Xinhua said NASA sent a letter to Chinese scientists inviting them back and cited excerpts from the letter . NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Sunday morning . The confusion apparently stemmed from a U.S. law passed in 2011 that prevents NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China or to host Chinese visitors at its facilities . NASA had announced that Chinese nationals would not be allowed to attend the conference for NASA 's Kepler space telescope program at the Ames Research Center due to national security . The space telescope has been searching for planets outside of our solar system . Earlier this month , China slammed NASA for its decision to ban Chinese scholars from the conference , calling it `` discriminatory . '' Gong Li , an official with the Party School of the China Central Committee 's Communist party , said the ban was similar to previous U.S. action against the former Soviet Union during the Cold War . He said it also illustrated U.S. fear of China 's fast development . NASA did n't release an official statement on its website due to the U.S. government 's partial shutdown earlier this month . But some U.S. scientists joined in decrying the decision and called for a boycott of the conference . `` In good conscience , I can not attend a meeting that discriminates in this way . The meeting is about planets located trillions of miles away , with no national security implications , '' Geoff Marcy , an astronomy professor at the University of California , Berkeley , wrote in an e-mail to the organizers . 'Inaccuracies ' U.S. Republican Rep. Frank Wolf , who drafted the 2011 law , issued a statement on his website that sought to correct `` inaccuracies '' about the restrictions first reported by Britain 's Guardian newspaper . `` I was concerned to read an October 4 article in The Guardian that reported on poor guidance about these policies with regard to restrictions on Chinese nationals attending a conference next month at NASA Ames Research Center . Unfortunately , the article is riddled with inaccuracies , as is , it appears , the guidance provided by NASA Ames staff to the attendees , '' Wolf wrote . `` As you know , the congressional provision -- which has been in place since early 2011 -- primarily restricts bilateral , not multilateral , meetings and activities with the Communist Chinese government or Chinese-owned companies . It places no restrictions on activities involving individual Chinese nationals unless those nationals are acting as official representatives of the Chinese government . '' Security fears . Wolf said NASA officials may have believed the decision was needed because of extra temporary restrictions on foreign nationals after a potential security breach by a Chinese citizen at a NASA facility earlier this year . In March this year , a Chinese aerospace contractor who worked for NASA was arrested at Washington 's Dulles International Airport as he boarded a flight to Beijing . Bo Jiang , who worked at NASA 's Langley 's Research Center in Hampton , Virginia , was charged with making false statements to U.S. authorities by failing to disclose all of the electronic devices he was carrying on his one-way flight . Wolf , who oversees congressional funding of several agencies , told reporters in March he believed Jiang was spying and had access to highly sensitive documents , including source codes for high-tech imaging used in missiles , unmanned aerospace equipment and other technology desired by the Chinese government .
NASA had barred from Chinese researchers from next month 's international science conference . Xinhua : NASA management apparently misinterpreted a 2011 national security law . The law prohibited NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China .