Two Chinese citizens, including one who works at the University of Michigan, were charged on June 2 with visa fraud, conspiracy, making false statements, and smuggling a pathogen into the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced the charges on June 3, ahead of defendant Yunqing Jian’s appearance in federal court.
“These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme.”
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said in a statement that the case should be “fully prosecuted as a threat against [the] country.”
Pathogen Research Funding
The case comes amid the Trump administration’s announcement that it is “aggressively” revoking visas for Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
According to a criminal complaint, Jian, 33, who currently works at the University of Michigan, is a CCP member, and her electronics contain information describing her loyalty to the Party.
The importing or handling of organisms that can injure, damage, or cause disease in plants require permits from the Department of Agriculture.
Jian applied for a J-1 visa in June 2022, which allowed her to do research as a postdoctoral fellow at a university in Texas between August 2022 and August 2023, according to the complaint. In 2023, Jian accepted a fellowship position at the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction (MPMI) Laboratory at the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan currently lists Jian as a postdoctoral fellow.
According to the federal complaint, Jian said in her visa application that she would “study topics distinct and different” from the fungal pathogen.
MPMI does not have permits to study Fusarium graminearum.
Law enforcement seized electronic devices from Jian and Liu that showed communications about a sample of Liu’s that was seen by the MPMI lab principal investigator, according to the complaint.
“I just went down to help with your plants,” Jian wrote, according to the complaint. “Fortunately, I went. Your cell death phenotype plants were seen by [the principal investigator].”
According to the complaint, Liu wrote back: “What should I do then? ... She didn’t say anything else, did she? ... I usually put it on the top shelf. ... I forgot this time and put it below.”
Jian replied: “I said it was Fusarium. No. ... She also asked me if you had detected it before. She thought it was Fo’s. ... I didn’t dare tell her it was Fg. ... Fortunately I didn’t say it was Fg. That’s even more serious.”
Law enforcement said it believes that “Fg” refers to Fusarium graminearum and “Fo” to Fusarium oxysporum, which MPMI does have a permit to study, the documents show.
In another set of messages from August 2022, Liu and Jian exchanged messages about Jian arriving in San Francisco and needing to “be careful” about storing “Teacher Liang’s seeds,” the document stated.
False Statements
Liu, 34, also previously worked at the University of Texas and the University of Michigan, according to the complaint. The MPMI website shows a photo of Liu winning an Early Career Scientist Award at the Xanthomonas Genomics Conference in 2022. Papers co-authored by Liu indicate that he was a postdoctoral fellow at Texas A&M University.Liu applied for a B-2 tourist visa in March 2024 and traveled to the United States in July 2024, according to the complaint.
Before eventually admitting to the smuggling, he allegedly made false statements about bringing the pathogen from China to the United States at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in July 2024 to conduct research at a University of Michigan lab with Jian.
Customs officers interviewed Liu, who initially said he did not have any work materials with him, according to court documents. The officers reported that they found a note in Chinese, filter paper, and four small bags of plant material, which Liu initially said must have been put into his bag by someone else.
When questioned, Liu then said the bags were different strains of Fusarium graminearum, according to the court document, and he hid them because he knew that there were restrictions on importing these materials. He allegedly said he intended to use the lab at the University of Michigan, where his girlfriend, Jian, also conducts research on the fungus.
An FBI lab test showed that the filter paper also contained 10 different samples of the fungus and could allow a researcher to propagate a live strain, according to the complaint.
FBI agents interviewed Jian about Liu, and Jian said, “I don’t study on Fusarium,” according to the complaint.
“I’m going to ask you point blank, and I need you to be honest,“ an agent asked Jian, according to court documents. ”Are you assisting his research on Fusarium graminearum in this lab?”
Jian said, “No,” but said that she did in China, according to the complaint.
“In this lab, here?” the agent asked again.
“Fusarium graminearum, no,“ Jian said, according to the documents. ”Fusarium graminearum, 100 percent no.”
Marty C. Raybon, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) director of field operations, said the charges came after a “complex investigation” by multiple CBP offices. Investigations by CBP and the FBI are ongoing.
The Epoch Times reached out to Jian through her University of Michigan contact information but did not receive a response by publication time. The Epoch Times was unable to ascertain if the Zhejiang University contact information for Liu was functional.
