2 days ago
Chinese national accused of smuggling biological materials into Michigan pleads no contest
A Chinese national accused of smuggling biological materials into the U.S. for work at a University of Michigan laboratory has pleaded no contest to smuggling charges and making false statements.
On Tuesday, Chengxuan Han, of the People's Republic of China, pleaded no contest to three smuggling charges and to making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, U.S. attorneys announced.
According to authorities, Han, who is a doctoral student at the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, sent four packages to the U.S. from China containing concealed biological material in 2024 and 2025. Those packages were addressed to people associated with a University of Michigan laboratory.
Han was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after arriving on a J1 visa on June 8. While officers inspected Han, she reportedly lied to authorities about the packages and the biological materials she had allegedly previously sent to the U.S.
During an interview with the FBI, agents say Han admitted to sending the packages, saying the packages contained biological material related to roundworms. She also allegedly admitted to lying to officers during her inspection.
Han is one of three Chinese nationals accused of smuggling biological material into Michigan. On June 3, Yunqing Jian, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at the Ann Arbor school, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud.
"This alien from Wuhan, China, smuggled round worms and other biomaterials into our country on three separate occasions to circumvent our border protections," said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., in a statement. "One of those times, she wrote that she was sending 'a fun letter.' The University of Michigan invited this Chinese national into our state to be a visiting scholar, where it was going to give her more than $41,000 in a year to do her worm research at the Life Sciences Institute. Something is wrong in Ann Arbor."
Han is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 10. She faces up to 20 years in prison for smuggling goods into the U.S. and up to 5 years for making false statements.
The FBI, ICE, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigated the case.
The above video first aired on June 9, 2025.
