National security officials and congressional members are expressing concern about an alleged plan by two Chinese researchers, who are romantically linked, to smuggle samples of a harmful crop-attacking fungus into the United States.
According to the FBI, Yunquing Jian, a 33-year-old lab researcher at the University of Michigan and a loyalist to the Communist Party who received funding from the Chinese government, conspired with her boyfriend, 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, to illegally transport the pathogen.
Liu was apprehended at Detroit Metropolitan Airport last July after allegedly trying to bring packages of Fusarium graminearum into the U.S., federal authorities reported.
“This is an attack on the American food supply,” one senior Trump administration official told The Post.
The fungus is already present in the US, but if it was manipulated to become resistant to treatment or to spread more easily, it could have the potential to devastate American farms, one expert told The Post. The US should be testing the fungus sample for any evidence it’s been tampered with, the expert added.
There are similar allegations that the virus that causes COVID-19 was enhanced by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of US-funded “gain-of-function” research of the naturally occurring SARS pathogen. China denies that COVID leaked from the lab, but US intel agencies now say that appears to be the most likely cause of the pandemic.
“The CCP will use every tool in its warfare toolbox to cripple the United States and bring us to our knees. A pathogen like this, if successfully introduced into a crop, could inflict significant economic loss for U.S. agriculture producers,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) told The Post.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said it appears the FBI may have intercepted a “potential bioweapon.”
“We are very fortunate the Trump administration and federal law enforcement stopped this potential bioweapon before it compromised our nation’s food supply,” Ernst told The Post.
“This is exactly why I have always said and will continue to say – food security is national security. Between this latest bioweapon and China’s highly-concerning purchases of U.S. farmland around our military bases, we must stay on guard against the threat from Communist China in our own backyard.”
According to the feds, the Chinese couple discussed how they could smuggle Fusarium graminearum into the US — a biological pathogen considered “a potential agroterrorism weapon” capable of destroying crops and poisoning both livestock and humans, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Michigan Monday.
Both Jian and Liu were charged Monday in a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the US, false statements and visa fraud.
“The bacteria infects wheat, barley, corn and rice. When it does, it can devastate crops,” one national security source who specializes in agricultural microbiology told The Post.
“The key question is if the bacterial strain being brought in has been modified to make it resistant to treatment or to make it more pathogenic.”
The source added that it could be dangerous “if the Chinese manipulated the strain” and that federal investigators should “have a genome sequence done” on the samples Jian and Liu allegedly conspired to smuggle into the country.
On July 27, 2024, Liu, who works as a researcher at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, arrived in Detroit on a Delta flight from Shanghai and was interviewed by Customs and Border Patrol agents about the purpose of his travel. He claimed he was in the US to visit Jian, a lab researcher at the University of Michigan whom he identified as his girlfriend.
Upon searching his belongings, agents found four plastic baggies containing “fibrous material” infected with the pathogen, as well as a round piece of filter paper with a series of circles drawn on it, concealed in his backpack in a ball of wadded up tissues.
According to the criminal complaint, Liu initially denied the items were his, suggesting someone else had put them into his bag without his knowledge.
However he later admitted they were different strains of Fusarium graminearum he intended to research at the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction (MPMI) Laboratory at the University of Michigan, where Jian conducts research on similar pathogens.
He also acknowledged he hid the materials when traveling to the US because he knew border patrol agents would confiscate them if they were discovered.
The circled filter paper found in his possession contained 10 separate coded samples, including one that “would allow a researcher to propagate live Fusarium graminearum,” the complaint states.
Liu told investigators that he planned to clone the different strains and make more samples if the experiments on the bagged materials failed. He was denied entry into the US and fast-tracked for removal to China.
While searching one of Liu’s cell phones, they found an article in PDF form titled “2018 Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.” Authorities said the article specifically referenced Fusarium graminearum as “an example of a destructive disease and pathogen for crops” and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.”
The FBI interviewed Jian at the MPMI Laboratory in February, where she first claimed she only learned of the alleged smuggling scheme when Liu was caught by CBP, and denied assisting him in his research of Fusarium graminearum.
Upon searching Jian’s cell phone, the FBI said it discovered a document she signed originating from Zhejiang University, where Liu conducts research on the pathogen, which included a loyalty pledge to “adhere to the four basic principles” and “support the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”
FBI Special Agent Edward Nieh said in his affidavit that one of the principles Jian signed her allegiance to includes “upholding Mao Zedong thought and Marxism-Leninism.”
Investigators said she signed the document Jan. 11, 2024, just six months before Liu allegedly flew to Detroit with the samples in tow.
Further investigation into Liu and Jian’s communications indicate it wasn’t the first time the pair had discussed smuggling the fetid fungus into the US.
One unearthed exchange from Aug. 12, 2022 on the Chinese messaging app WeChat reveals the couple scheming on how to sneak the seeds past US customs officials, with Liu advising Jian to hid the materials in her shoes.
A day later, Jian arrived at San Francisco International Airport on a United Airlines flight from Seoul. Authorities reviewed records from her entry and found she did not declare she was importing any biological materials.
Rutgers University molecular biologist Dr. Richard Ebright told The Post that Fusarium graminearum causes estimated losses of $200-400 million to US agriculture every year.
However, he said, the fungus has been endemic in the US for more than 40 years, and that new introduction of the organism into the US does not, by itself, pose a new threat.
“Importation of Fusarium graminearum without a USDA PPQ526 permit should not have occurred,” he said.
“However, unless the imported strain was a new strain having enhanced transmissibility or virulence, its importation likely posed no threat to US agriculture or US security,” he added, noting that if Jian had gone through proper permitting procedure to obtain the pathogen, it “almost certainly would have been approved and arrests would not have occurred.”
Jian, who received a J1 visa to conduct research as a postdoctoral scholar at a University of Texas lab, was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan before being offered a job in August 2023.
The University of Michigan did not respond to The Post’s questions about whether she is still employed there following the allegations. The Post also reached out to Jian at her university email address but did not hear back.
Liu secured a B2 tourist visa in March 2024, which does not allow foreign nationals to perform work or scientific research during their visit.
Jian was temporarily detained by authorities on June 3 until her detention hearing scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m. Her case has been assigned to the public defender’s office but an attorney had not been named by Wednesday evening.
Liu remains at large with a warrant out for his arrest.
