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The justice department has charged two Chinese nationals with a conspiracy to smuggle a “potential agroterrorism weapon” into the US.
Federal prosecutors accused a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan and her boyfriend of seeking to bring a noxious fungus into the US to research it in the college laboratory, according to a criminal complaint announced on Tuesday.
The alleged conduct was “of the gravest national security concerns”, Jerome Gorgon, interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a statement.
The case is the latest by the US targeting Chinese nationals as Washington continues to focus on national security risks stemming from Beijing. It comes as the two countries are locked in a bitter trade war while the US seeks to quash the flow of illicit fentanyl originating from China.
The toxins of the Fusarium graminearum cause liver damage, vomiting and reproductive defects in livestock as well as humans; diseases that have an impact on rice, wheat and other crops; and lead to billions of dollars in losses each year, according to federal prosecutors.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, Liu Zunyong was stopped and questioned by customs officers as he entered the US through a Detroit airport in July last year. It said he admitted he had smuggled the fungus and that he aimed to conduct research on it at the University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend, Jian Yunqing, worked.
Liu said he planned to clone different strains of the organism and that he had sought to hide samples in his backpack due to US import restrictions. Liu, who could not be reached for comment, was ultimately denied entry to the US and returned to China after the samples were seized.
The charges come nearly a year after Liu was stopped at the Detroit airport. Asked about the gap, the DoJ said the case featured regular investigative steps and due diligence.
Jian researched “plant-pathogen interactions” in China before moving to the US. Her visa application said she intended to study topics “distinct and different” from Fusarium graminearum, according to the affidavit.
Jian, a member of the Chinese Communist party, initially claimed she had no information on Liu’s conduct. But electronic communications showed the pair had discussed shipping biological materials, the FBI agent said.
A statement from the University of Michigan said it was co-operating with the investigation, adding: “We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission.”
Jian on Tuesday made her initial appearance in a Detroit court, after which she was temporarily detained. The judge set a detention hearing for Thursday. Jian’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The charges against Jian and Liu include conspiracy to defraud the US, smuggling goods into the country, visa fraud and false statements.
