Two reported attempts by a Chinese couple to smuggle a potentially toxic plant fungus called Fusarium graminearum through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport to a University of Michigan research laboratory offer cause for serious public safety concern.
The noxious fungus causes "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, which when consumed causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.
According to an FBI court filing, Zunyong Liu was turned around at the Detroit airport and sent back to China last year, while in the other event, his girlfriend Yunqing Jian, was recently arrested there and remains in custody.
The report alleges that Jian, who was arrested on June 8 after arriving on a flight from China where she is pursuing an advanced degree at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, had planned to spend a year completing Chinese government-funded research on the pathogen as a U. of Michigan postdoctoral fellow.
Jian's shipments intercepted by airport customs officials reportedly included an envelope stuffed inside a book along with electronic messaging information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
An examination of Liu's and Jian's electronic devices uncovered WeChat messages from 2022 in which they discussed smuggling seeds into the United States.
"I put them in my Martin boots," Liu wrote, according to an FBI complaint. "In a small bag. The ziplock bag. Very small."
"That's good," Jian replied, the complaint says. "Just put it in your shoes."
It is further alleged that Jian's boyfriend, Liu who conducts research at Wuhan on the same pathogen, first lied to customs officials stating that he didn't know what the materials were and that someone must have put them into his bag.
When asked why someone would put those materials into his bag, Liu laimed he didn't know, later admitting that maybe he had accidentally put them there.
After further questioning, Liu acknowledged that the materials contained on the filter paper were different strains of the pathogen intended to make more samples if the experiments on the reddish plant material failed.
He also admitted intentionally hiding the samples in his backpack because he knew there were restrictions on the importation of the materials.
Liu remains at large with a warrant out for his arrest.
Whereas U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. hasn't charged the couple with attempted agriterrorism, he nevertheless believes that such smuggling "threatens our security" and has agreed to preside over criminal complaints for conspiracy in smuggling goods into the United States and making false statements.
Gorgon stated: "The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals — including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party — are of the gravest national security concerns."
"These two aliens," he said, "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."
U.S. Customs and Border Control Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon added: "Today's criminal charges levied upon Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu are indicative of CBP's critical role in protecting the American people from biological threats that could devastate our agricultural economy and cause harm to humans; especially when it involves a researcher from a major university attempting to clandestinely bring potentially harmful biological materials into the United States."
Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, stated that: "The federal charges announced today against Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu, both residents of the People's Republic of China, signify a crucial advancement in our efforts to safeguard our communities and uphold national security."
To be fair, Jian and Liu cannot be tried in court until such time fuller evidentiary investigation determines that felony indictments are warranted.
As University of Wisconsin, Madison plant pathologist Caitilyn Allen points out, "It appears they were planning to do experiments with it in a university lab that studies how plants resist diseases with the goal of breeding disease-resistant crops that don't require fungicides … It seems that this was bad judgment fueled by scientific excitement, not agriterrorism."
On the other hand, as argued in the New York Post, since the fungus is already present in the U.S., if it was manipulated to become resistant to treatment or to spread more easily, it could have the potential to devastate American farms.
The Post notes that similar allegations that the virus that causes COVID-19 was enhanced by China's Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of U.S.-funded "gain-of-function" research of the naturally occurring SARS pathogen, and whereas China denies that COVID leaked from the lab, U.S. intel agencies now say that this appears to be the most likely cause of the pandemic.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., told the Post: "The [Chinese Communist Party] CCP will use every tool in its warfare toolbox to cripple the United States and bring us to our knees. A pathogen like this, if successfully introduced into a crop, could inflict significant economic loss for U.S. agriculture producers."
FBI Director Kash Patel agrees, posting on X: "This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences … putting American lives and our economy at serious risk."
That's a vital lesson to always remember.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.