by WorldTribune Staff, June 5, 2025 Real World News
A Chinese national who was arrested along with her boyfriend and charged in a plot to smuggle a toxic pathogen into the United States worked at a taxpayer funded American laboratory led by two senior Chinese scientists.
The smuggled fungus is classified as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon.’ / U.S. District CourtThe Department of Justice announced that Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged Tuesday with smuggling a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the United States in 2024. The fungus is classified in the scientific literature as a “potential agroterrorism weapon” because it affects wheat, barley, maize, and rice by causing “head blight.”
Prosecutors say Zunyong Liu flew the pathogen into Detroit for his girlfriend Yunqing Jian, who works at a University of Michigan lab.
According to federal spending records, the University of Michigan research laboratory is led by two senior researchers who are also Chinese citizens and are receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for studying plant immunity.
The senior researchers, Ping He and Libo Shan, both of whom completed their undergraduate studies in China and doctoral and postdoctoral studies in the United States, are faculty members at the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction Working Groups housed at the University of Michigan’s Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. The laboratory conducts research on plant immunity, according to its website.
NIH records show that the two senior researchers received more than $7.6 million in total funding between two sponsored projects. Both NIH projects (R35GM144275 and R35GM149197) were cited in at least two research papers involving both of the indicted Chinese nationals.
The FBI told Just the News that the case exposes a serious national security risk with U.S. scientific research relying on foreign scientists, particularly those from communist China.
“The CCP’s quiet infiltration of our research ecosystem is a direct threat to our national security, biosecurity, and economic independence,” Erica Knight, an adviser to FBI Director Kash Patel, told Just the News. “The Director understands these threats better than anyone, and under his leadership, we will aggressively root out every trace of corrupt foreign influence.”
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the incident shows that the threat of Chinese involvement in dangerous research funded by the U.S. government, first exposed during investigations into Covid, is still ongoing.
“It has been obvious for years that Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins not only funded dangerous research, but directed funding to scientists loyal to China, not America,” Johnson told Just the News. “My hope is that we can uncover and expose the extent to which their blatant actions harmed our nation and the world.”
Chinese national in pathogen plot worked at U.S. taxpayer funded lab added by Editor Two on June 5, 2025
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