Latest news with #agroterrorism
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Third Chinese scientist accused of covertly smuggling pathogen into US
A third Chinese scientist has been charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States after a University of Michigan student and her boyfriend were caught last week. Chengxuan Han was arrested on Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan airport and charged with smuggling goods into the US. Police allege Han sent four packages which 'contained biological material related to round worms' from China to the US. The packages were sent between September 2024 and March 2025 and addressed to people linked to the laboratory at the University of Michigan. Han initially denied sending the packages at all, according to court documents. She later insisted they contained plastic cups, rather than petri dishes. According to the documents, she ultimately admitted sending the samples, which she had collected during her research as a Ph.D. student in Wuhan, China. The charges come less than a week after University of Michigan postdoctoral fellow Yunqing Jian (pictured), 33, was charged alongside Zunyong Liu, 34, for attempting to smuggle a weapon of 'agroterrorism' into the United States in a sinister plot allegedly tied to the Chinese Communist Party. Liu arrived in the United States from China in July 2024 carrying four small baggies of Fusarium graminearum - a product responsible for causing billions of dollars worth of damage to livestock, wheat, barley, maize and rice globally each year. All three of the accused have links to the same university laboratory. Han was initially refused a visa to the US in March 2025, largely because she struggled to conduct her crucial visa interview in English, which is a requirement. She was unable to answer basic questions about herself or her research field. Two weeks later, Han applied again and during her second interview 'spoke credibly about her educational background, current studies, and post graduate plans.' Han is also accused of lying to border authorities who questioned her about the packages she had previously sent. When officers attempted to check her phone, they learned it had been wiped three days before she arrived, the court documents state. FBI boss Kash Patel issued a chilling warning following the initial arrest of Jian last week. 'This 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,' he said. If successful, the plot 'would have grave consequences... putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.' The duo have been charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud. In a horrifying twist, the criminal complaint reveals that Jian may have been successful in smuggling pathogens into the United States years earlier. The research student, who reportedly had pledged her loyalty to the CCP, had indicated in messages to Liu that she previously carried a pathogen her shoe on a trip to America in 2022. 'Electronic evidence also shows that Jian has been involved in smuggling packages of biological material into the United States on prior occasions,' the complaint stated. Separately, messages revealed she had arranged for another associate from China to mail her a book with a plastic baggie of the substance hidden inside in early 2024. The horrifying revelations raise questions about what Jian and Liu were hoping to achieve with the pathogen. The complaint also revealed that Jian had received funding from the Chinese government to conduct similar work on the same pathogen while she lived in China. Her boyfriend is employed at a Chinese university where he also studies Fusarium graminearum. The pair had 'discussed the shipping of biological materials and research being done in the laboratory' before he arrived in the United States. Fusarium graminearum's toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock if consumed. 'The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals, including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party, are of the gravest national security concerns,' US Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said. In July 2024, Liu was turned away at the Detroit airport and sent back to China after changing his story during an interrogation about the red plant material discovered in his backpack, per the FBI. He initially claimed he knew nothing about the samples but later admitted he was planning to use the material for research at the lab, the complaint detailed. The FBI said authorities found a scientific article on Liu's phone that was titled, 'Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.' A week before he arrived in the US, Liu exchanged messages with his partner, who said: 'It´s a pity that I still have to work for you,' according to investigators. FBI agents visited Jian at the campus lab in February, as she told them: '100% no,' when asked if she had been assisting Liu with the pathogen at the lab. But her text messages suggested she was in fact studying the product prior to her boyfriend's arrival in the country. The agency said it found a signed statement on her phone expressing her support for the Communist Party of China. The university does not have federal permits to handle Fusarium graminearum. In a statement, the University of Michigan said it did not receive 'funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals.' 'We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university's critical public mission.' Gorgon Jr. described the allegations against the 'two aliens' as the 'gravest national security concerns.' The US does not have an extradition treaty with China, meaning Liu's arrest is unlikely unless he returns. The charges come as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on international students on US campuses, vowing last week to begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in 'critical fields.' China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. 'Under President Trump's leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields ,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Third Chinese scientist charged with smuggling illegal biological pathogen into US from Wuhan
Another Chinese scientist has been charged with smuggling an illegal bioweapon into the United States after a University of Michigan student and her boyfriend were caught last week. Chengxuan Han was arrested on Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan airport and charged with smuggling goods into the US. Police allege Han sent four packages which 'contained biological material related to round worms' from China to the US. Two packages were sent - one in 2024 and another in 2024 - and addressed to people linked to the laboratory at the University of Michigan. Han initially denied sending the packages at all, according to court documents. She later insisted they contained plastic cups, rather than petri dishes. According to the documents, she ultimately admitted sending the samples, which she had collected during her research as a Ph.D. student in Wuhan, China. The charges come less than a week after University of Michigan postdoctoral fellow Yunqing Jian, 33, was charged alongside Zunyong Liu, 34, for attempting to smuggle a weapon of 'agroterrorism' into the United States in a sinister plot allegedly tied to the Chinese Communist Party. Liu arrived in the United States from China in July 2024 carrying four small baggies of Fusarium graminearum - a product responsible for causing billions of dollars worth of damage to livestock, wheat, barley, maize and rice globally each year. FBI boss Kash Patel issued a chilling warning after the first pictures emerged of Jian on Tuesday evening. 'This 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,' he said. If successful, the plot 'would have grave consequences... putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.' The duo have been charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud. In a horrifying twist, the criminal complaint reveals that Jian may have been successful in smuggling pathogens into the United States years earlier. The research student, who reportedly had pledged her loyalty to the CCP, had indicated in messages to Liu that she previously carried a pathogen her shoe on a trip to America in 2022. 'Electronic evidence also shows that Jian has been involved in smuggling packages of biological material into the United States on prior occasions,' the complaint stated. Separately, messages revealed she had arranged for another associate from China to mail her a book with a plastic baggie of the substance hidden inside in early 2024. The horrifying revelations raise questions about what Jian and Liu were hoping to achieve with the pathogen. The complaint also revealed that Jian had received funding from the Chinese government to conduct similar work on the same pathogen while she lived in China. Her boyfriend is employed at a Chinese university where he also studies Fusarium graminearum. The pair had 'discussed the shipping of biological materials and research being done in the laboratory' before he arrived in the United States. Fusarium graminearum's toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock if consumed. 'The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals, including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party, are of the gravest national security concerns,' US Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said. In July 2024, Liu was turned away at the Detroit airport and sent back to China after changing his story during an interrogation about the red plant material discovered in his backpack, per the FBI. He initially claimed he knew nothing about the samples but later admitted he was planning to use the material for research at the lab, the complaint detailed. The FBI said authorities found a scientific article on Liu's phone that was titled, 'Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.' A week before he arrived in the US, Liu exchanged messages with his partner, who said: 'It´s a pity that I still have to work for you,' according to investigators. FBI agents visited Jian at the campus lab in February, as she told them: '100% no,' when asked if she had been assisting Liu with the pathogen at the lab. But her text messages suggested she was in fact studying the product prior to her boyfriend's arrival in the country. The agency said it found a signed statement on her phone expressing her support for the Communist Party of China. The university does not have federal permits to handle Fusarium graminearum. In a statement, the University of Michigan said it did not receive 'funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals.' 'We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university's critical public mission.' Gorgon Jr. described the allegations against the 'two aliens' as the 'gravest national security concerns.' Jian appeared in court Tuesday and was returned to jail to await a bond hearing set for Thursday. An attorney who was assigned only for her initial appearance declined to comment, the Associated Press reported. The US does not have an extradition treaty with China, meaning Liu's arrest is unlikely unless he returns. The charges come as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on international students on US campuses, vowing last week to begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in 'critical fields.' China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. 'Under President Trump's leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
The real implications of the Chinese fungus smuggling
Many Americans were probably surprised when they learned that two Chinese citizens, Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu, had been charged with trying to smuggle a fungus described as a "potential agroterrorism weapon" into the U.S. But they shouldn't have been. When the Cold War with the Soviet Union ended, many in the U.S. convinced themselves that China wasn't a threat – that Beijing was moving toward democracy, open markets and liberalism. Nonsense. In fact, China clearly aims to replace us as the world's major economy and military power. They trade with us on unfair terms and manipulate their currency, causing huge trade deficits for the U.S. They steal or force us to surrender technology, either surreptitiously or through coercive partnership agreements with American companies that are too focused on short-term profit. Across the world, China undermines our diplomatic power through economic means, building infrastructure on apparently generous terms but with strings attached. It's no secret that China spies on us. We surely spy on them too, but they have a huge advantage in their massive resident or visiting diaspora in the Western countries, for which we have no counterpart. There are currently around 280,000 Chinese students in the U.S., but fewer than 1,000 American students in China. Americans number around 100,000 in China, while China is the third-largest immigrant group in the U.S. at over 2.4 million. China's 2017 National Intelligence Law demands that "all organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts." China has a huge diaspora population in Western countries, from students to permanent residents, that it can target to bribe or bully into acts of espionage. Like the Cubans and Russians, they have also bribed Americans with no ethnic ties to their country to spy for them. In March 2024, a Chinese illegal alien wandered onto a Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms, California. He was caught, but he still scoped out the security at our biggest Marine base. The Wall Street Journal counted 100 such "innocent" incidents of Chinese, here legally and illegally, wandering onto or photographing sensitive U.S. government sites in recent years. A hot war with China in the next decade is not an impossible scenario. They are preparing for it, while our military is lagging in recruitment, equipment and technology. If conflict does break out, we would have our hands full in the theater of conflict given China's rapid expansion in naval and air power. To assist their kinetic effort in the field, what might China do inside the United States? It would only take a tiny percentage of the Chinese here to cause serious damage. In addition to permanent residents, students and visitors, when last I saw numbers on this, there were over 25,000 Chinese nationals with criminal convictions that China refused to let us return to them. In Fiscal Year 2024, 78,701 Chinese nationals entered the U.S. illegally at or between ports of entry. So far this fiscal year, more than 22,000 Chinese nationals have entered illegally. In March 2024, I watched DHS-chartered buses dropping off aliens at a San Diego bus stop. Though I saw GPS tracking anklets worn by Eastern Europeans and Central Asians, I saw none on the Chinese. Unless they are caught committing a crime in the meantime, nearly all of them will roam free until their immigration cases are concluded, many years into the future. With potential assets nationwide, China could target our critical infrastructure, including water, electricity and the internet. They could also deploy engineered pathogens against humans that might wreak worse damage than COVID-19, which we now accept most likely "escaped" from a Chinese laboratory that was funded and controlled by their military and government. Furthermore, they could attempt to destroy crops across our agricultural heartland, using a bioweapon like the fungus Jian and Liu were carrying, which causes "head blight," a disease of cereal crops. We need to take this threat seriously. For a generation, vetting of Chinese students, businesses, products, cultural exchanges and every other interaction with the United States has been too lax and overly trusting. Chinese were the top foreign buyers of U.S. commercial real estate in 2020, and in 2021, Chinese owners held 384,000 acres in the U.S. They often use shell companies to obscure the owner's Chinese origin. Chinese individuals and entities have also purchased or attempted to buy land close to U.S. military installations in several states. Yet the Biden administration dialed down or canceled Justice Department efforts "aimed at protecting American technology from China," Reuters reported in 2021. At the same time, the Biden administration "drastically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants," according to a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee in 2024. During the Cold War, we never let Russia buy up massive tracts of land, control vital industries and dominate raw material supply chains, nor gave its citizens open access to our schools and markets. Why do we let China? Customs and Border Protection inspectors did fine work catching the hidden fungus-needle in a haystack. We need a capable, motivated and fully funded Department of Homeland Security. And over at the State Department, while there is certainly room for cuts and re-organization, Secretary Marco Rubio would be wise to retain the experienced experts who work to limit Chinese access to our sensitive technology, protect American intellectual property, and properly vet their visiting students and researchers. It's past time to address this threat.
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Teen dead after drowning at West Michigan lake, sheriff says
Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories An 18-year-old man is dead after drowning at Campbell Lake in Bowne Township, Michigan, on Sunday afternoon. The Kent County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded to the drowning just before 2 p.m. The man from Byron Township had been swimming when he went underwater and did not resurface, officials said. A marine patrol unit with the sheriff's office worked with the Alto and Caledonia fire departments to search for and find the man, who died at the scene. The drowning is under investigation.
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Man, 46, dead after minibike crashes into utility pole in Oakland County
Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories Court hearing on agroterrorism plot; poor air quality continues in Michigan; and more top stories A 46-year-old man is dead after the minibike he was driving crashed into a utility pole in Pontiac, Michigan, on Saturday afternoon, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. The crash happened around 1:30 p.m. in the area of North Cass Avenue and Cesar East Chavez Avenue. The man, later identified as Terrance Dale Fulgenzi from White Lake Township, Michigan, was driving the minibike when it left the road and struck the pole, the sheriff's office says. The impact of the collision caused Fulgenzi to be thrown from the bike. He was taken to the hospital where he later died. According to the sheriff's office, Fulgenzi wasn't wearing a helmet, and his minibike wasn't legally allowed to be on the road. Witnesses told deputies that Fulgenzi and six other people driving minibikes were weaving in and out of traffic. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Crash Reconstruction Unit is investigating the incident.
