June 3 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Tuesday announced charges against two Chinese scholars accused of smuggling a dangerous biological pathogen with agroterrorism potential into the United States.
The scholars, Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, are facing charges of conspiracy, goods smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud.
“The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals — including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party — are of the gravest national security concerns,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said in a statement.
“These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme.”
The biological pathogen the couple are alleged to have smuggled into the United States has been identified as fusarium graminearum, a fungus that causes head blight, which poses significant threat to wheat, barley, maize and rice.
What the couple intended to do with the noxious fungus was not apparent, but the complaint filed against them states that Jian, an alleged member of the CCP and a scholar at the University of Michigan, is accused of receiving funding from Beijing for her work on the pathogen and that Liu, her boyfriend, conducts research on the same fungus at a Chinese university.
According to the complaint, Liu lied about smuggling fusarium graminearum into the United States through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport with the intent to conduct research on it at a laboratory at his girlfriend’s school.
Federal prosecutors said that Liu has admitted to smuggling the pathogen into the country.
“These individuals exploited their access to laboratory facilities at a local university to engage in the smuggling of biological pathogens, an act that posed an imminent threat to public safety,” Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said in a statement.
The pair were arrested by the FBI, and Jian was to appear in federal court in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon.
The University of Michigan released a statement in response to the charges, stating they “strongly condemn any actions that seek to harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission.”
“It is important to note that the university has received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals,” the school added.
“We have and will continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement in its ongoing investigation and prosecution.”
The charges were announced a week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they were working to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students, without citing a reason.
Chinese academics stealing technology and intellectual property was a large concern for the first Trump administration, whose Justice Department had launched a controversial program to specifically prosecute Chinese accused of corporate espionage — a program the Biden administration shuttered under criticism that it fueled intolerance and bias.
“This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences… putting American lives and our economy at serious risk,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on X.
