Two Chinese citizens have been charged with conspiracy and smuggling of a biological pathogen into the U.S., which was allegedly intended for research purposes at the University of Michigan, where one of the Chinese nationals works, the FBI said on Tuesday.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, allegedly attempted to smuggle Fusarium graminearum, a fungus that the FBI identified as a potential agroterrorism agent “responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year” that could “cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.”
Jian works as a molecular, cellular, and developmental biology research fellow at the University of Michigan’s Shan Lab, according to the university’s website. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Jian had expressed her loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and, along with Liu, had received Chinese funding to conduct research on the pathogen in China.
“It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America — through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport — so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,” the Department of Justice said in a press release.
Alongside his girlfriend Jian, Liu was charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements, and visa fraud, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced. Liu reportedly brought the fungus through the Detroit airport, lied to authorities when questioned about the pathogen, then admitted that he was bringing the pathogen to his researcher girlfriend.
Jian may have been involved with “smuggling packages of biological material into the United States on prior occasions,” the complaint added.
“The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals — including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party — are of the gravest national security concerns,” Gorgon said. “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 FBI’s field office in Detroit partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to file the complaint against Jian and Liu. University of Michigan officials condemned actions that “seek to threaten national security” and denied having received any funding from the Chinese government in relation to Jian’s research.
“Today’s criminal charges levied upon Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu are indicative of CBP’s critical role in protecting the American people from biological threats that could devastate our agricultural economy and cause harm to humans; especially when it involves a researcher from a major university attempting to clandestinely bring potentially harmful biological materials into the United States,” CBP Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon said.