CNN – Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that they planned to study at a University of Michigan lab, a complaint filed Tuesday says.
The charges come as the Trump administration is cracking down on Chinese students studying in the United States and citing alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, false statements and visa fraud for bringing in the fungus Fusarium graminearum from China.
“The Department of Justice has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Fusarium graminearum is described as “a potential agroterrorism weapon” that can cause disease in certain plants like wheat, corn, rice and barley, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic loss worldwide each year,” an FBI affidavit in support of the complaint says.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the case is “a sobering reminder that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences” …
