ANN ARBOR, Mich. —
Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that they planned to study at a University of Michigan lab, a complaint filed Tuesday says.
The charges come as the Trump administration is cracking down on Chinese students studying in the United States and citing alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party in its ongoing fight with academic institutions.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud for bringing in the fungus Fusarium graminearum from China, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Fusarium graminearum is described as “a potential agroterrorism weapon” that can cause disease in certain plants like corn, rice and barley, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic loss worldwide each year,” an FBI affidavit in support of the complaint says.
The charges come as the Trump administration is looking to revoke visas for Chinese students, especially those with alleged “connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week. The State Department has zeroed in on any potential wrongdoing from academics across the country in the last several months, including a Harvard researcher accused of smuggling frog embryo remains.