The FBI and other federal authorities say they have intercepted at the border biological agents capable of devastating U.S. food systems.
They say that after deboarding his international flight in Detroit in July 2024, a Chinese molecular biologist headed to the U.S. Customs area.
There, officers discovered something strange in Liu Zunyong’s bags—a wad of crumpled-up tissue in a small pocket of his backpack, according to a federal criminal complaint.
The tissue concealed a note in Chinese, a round piece of filter paper with a series of circles drawn on it, and four clear plastic bags containing small reddish plant material, the complaint states.
Initially, Liu said that he did not know what the materials were and that someone must have put them in his bag.
As the questioning became more intense, the complaint says Liu admitted to making false statements. Eventually, he told them the materials were different strains of a toxic fungus known as Fusarium graminearum.
The fungus is a pathogen that could be used in agroterrorism—a form of biological warfare that targets food supply chains through the infection of major crops such as wheat, corn, and rice, according to the complaint.
The discovery by Customs and Border Protection led to further investigation and eventual charges filed against Liu and his girlfriend, Jian Yunqing, on June 2, including making false statements and smuggling a pathogen into the United States.
Jian, who worked at a University of Michigan lab, had allegedly pledged membership and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to information found in her electronic devices, the complaint states.
A week later, Han Chengxuan, a doctoral candidate from China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology was accused of bringing in biological material from a roundworm.
Like the other two Chinese nationals, she was attempting to conduct further research at a University of Michigan lab, according to a federal complaint.
Han allegedly admitted to shipping plasmids and petri dishes of C. elegans, which is a roundworm, to the Michigan lab from Huazhong University of Science and Technology before she arrived, according to the complaint.
On June 8, she was charged with smuggling and making false statements.
The string of recent incidents involving Chinese nationals attempting to smuggle potentially dangerous biological materials into the United States has sparked national security concerns.
Department of Justice prosecutor Jerome Gorgon called the alleged smugglings the “gravest national security concerns.”
Clare Lopez, former CIA operations officer and national security expert, said these incidents are part of a broader strategy outlined in Chinese military doctrine.
“They consider biological warfare against agriculture, animals, and humans as part of their military repertoire,” Lopez told The Epoch Times.
—Darlene McCormick Sanchez; Stacy Robinson
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