China's Fungus—A Biological Weapons Attack on America's Food Supply?

Newsweek

4 hours ago

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
This month, three Chinese nationals were charged with smuggling biological agents into the United States. The attempts could be part of a biological weapons attack on America's farms and ranches.
On June 3, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, had been charged with conspiracy, smuggling, false statements, and visa fraud.
Jian was arrested for smuggling Fusarium graminearum, a "potential agroterrorism weapon" that causes "head blight." The fungal disease hits wheat, barley, maize, and rice and "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year." In humans and livestock, head blight causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects.
A tractor and planting implement creates a dust cloud while planting a wheat field in the fertile farm fields of Idaho.
A tractor and planting implement creates a dust cloud while planting a wheat field in the fertile farm fields of Idaho.
Getty Images
Their actions, according to U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Jr., represented "the gravest national security concerns." Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit Field Office, said the pathogens "posed an imminent threat to public safety."
Then on June 9, Michigan's Eastern District announced that it had charged Chinese citizen Chengxuan Han with smuggling "biological materials" and making false statements. The materials, it appears, related to round worms.
So why were Jian, Liu, and Han importing pathogens?
"Fusarium graminearum is a common pathogen affecting crops in China, and numerous Chinese research institutes, including the Institute of Rice Biology at Zhejiang University, have been actively studying it," Xiaoxu Sean Lin, a former lab director of the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told Newsweek. "The FBI confiscated samples labeled 'ARP9,' an actin-related gene known to influence chromatin remodeling and gene transcription. This suggests the samples were genetically modified strains of Fusarium graminearum."
"This raises a critical biosafety question," Lin noted. "Were these modified strains
designed to enhance infectivity or pesticide resistance?"
The pair may have intended, Lin said, "to perform field testing with these modified fungal strains on university-owned agricultural land." And perhaps they were intending to develop one or more modified strains of head blight to be introduced on farmland or ranchland elsewhere.
Zunyong Liu was affiliated with Zhejiang University, where he conducted research on Fusarium graminearum. That institution, Lin said, has a well-documented collaboration with the People's Liberation Army. As he pointed out, "China's military-civil fusion strategy makes it reasonable to speculate about military interest in these genetically modified pathogens, which are potentially related to biological warfare or agroterrorism."
Lin said research on such organisms would require special permits from both the University of Michigan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jian and Liu, as experienced researchers, would have known that. "If the intent was purely academic," Lin asked, "why did the researchers not pursue the legal, regulated channels for pathogen transfer?"
The fact that Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu would risk their careers by smuggling a known pathogen is a factor suggesting malign intent, especially given their relations with the Communist Party—Jian is a member—and their probable connections with military research at their home institutions in China.
U.S. Attorney Gorgon said Chengxuan Han's smuggling was part of "an alarming pattern." Brandon Weichert, author of Biohacked: China's Race to Control Life, agreed, telling Newsweek, "The twin incidents are unlikely to be coincidental and certainly part of a troubling series of pathogen transfers to and from Chinese research institutions in recent years."
Lin believed Han's affiliation with Huazhong University of Science and Technology is a warning sign because that institution is also involved in military-civil fusion programs.
"Questions about PLA involvement are warranted," Lin said. "Biological warfare is a strategic 'commanding height' in Chinese military doctrine."
As Weichert told this publication, "These agents can be weapons of mass destruction and their introduction into the United States could very well have been preparation for a biological weapons attack."
The Chinese attempts this year to smuggle pathogens may be only the latest incidents in a Chinese campaign to bring down American agriculture. China, I believe, has been trying to plant invasive species in America since at least 2020. That year, Americans in all 50 states received seeds unsolicited from China. Early this year, Temu, the online Chinese retailer, was caught sending seeds to the U.S. unsolicited. In one case, a Chinese party sent unsolicited both seeds and an unidentified liquid.
"We can expect many more attempts at sabotaging our food supply both to damage our economy and cause chaos," Weichert said.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America and The Coming Collapse of China. Follow him on X @GordonGChang.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.