Feds charge another Chinese citizen with smuggling biological materials for lab work

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Another Chinese citizen is facing smuggling charges from the federal government, the third in a week, this time accused of bringing biological materials related to roundworms into the U.S. for her work at a University of Michigan laboratory.
Chengxuan Han is charged with smuggling goods into the United States and making false statements, according to a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit. She is to make an initial appearance June 9 in federal court. No attorney is listed for her in court records.
Han is pursing a doctoral degree from the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint.
From September 2024 to March, it indicated, she was listed as the sender of four packages of concealed or mis-manifested biological material addressed to two people associated with a lab at U-M.
The affidavit did not name the lab or individuals, but it indicated the lab studies sensory biology, including mechanosensation, thermosensation, chemosensation, photosensation and nociception, and focuses on sensory transduction, sensory processing and sensory regulation of aging.
The court filing indicated that Han's offer letter from U-M states she was invited as a visiting scholar to the lab. One recipient of the packages is listed an active member of the lab, and the other is listed as a member of the faculty and staff of the Life Sciences Institute at the university, according to the affidavit.
More: Detention hearing adjourned for Chinese citizen accused in fungus smuggling case
More: Feds: Chinese citizens charged with smuggling harmful fungus for research at U-M
The packages did not contain the correct documentation and were not imported per correct U.S. Department of Agriculture or U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations, according to the affidavit.
Han arrived at Detroit Metro Airport from Shanghai on a J-1 visa June 8 and customs officers conducted an inspection and interview. She denied sending the packages to members of the lab, according to the affidavit, but when pressed, admitted to shipping them, with the materials from her research lab at the Chinese university.
She initially told customs officers the packages were plastic cups, instead of petri dishes, the affidavit indicated, and a book "(omitting the envelope with suspected biological materials concealed in it.)"
She then admitted sending packages containing "nematode growth medium 1 (NGM) (in the petri dishes) and plasmids (in the envelope)," according to the affidavit. In the filing, the FBI agent wrote that it was unlikely the petri dishes solely contained NGM, which is used to cultivate nematode worms in lab settings, because it is readily available and inexpensive in the U.S.
Customs officials also found that she deleted the content of her electronic devices three days before arriving in the U.S., according to the affidavit. It indicates that she told authorities she deleted the content to "start fresh" while in the U.S.
Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Jr. stated in a release that the alleged smuggling "is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security. The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a (People's Republic of China)-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions."
John Nowak, acting director of field operations for customs and border protection, added: "The guidelines for importing biological materials into the U.S. for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars."
Last week, Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud in a separate case unsealed June 3. They are accused of smuggling a fungus that causes a disease in wheat, barley, maize and rice so that Liu could research the pathogen at a U-M lab where Jian works.
Jian is being held pending a detention hearing June 13 in federal court. Liu is accused of smuggling the fungus into the country at the airport in clear plastic baggies in his backpack July 27. Customs officers denied him entry and processed him for expedited removal back to China, according to an affidavit in that case.
Prosecutors indicated in a news release that the fungus is Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. It causes "head blight," a disease of the crops, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. The toxins the fungus produces can cause vomiting, liver damage and reproductive defects in livestock and humans, it indicated.
The federal government also has charged a former U-M student from China, Haoxiang Gao, with voting illegally in the 2024 presidential election, then fleeing the country a day before President Donald Trump took office in January, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Contact Christina Hall: [e-mail]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Feds charge another Chinese citizen with smuggling biological materials