Federal Money Trail Leads to Chinese Scientists Charged in Shocking Pathogen Plot, Memos Show

Two Chinese scientists charged in a shocking plot to smuggle a toxic pathogen into the United States worked at an American laboratory led by more senior Chinese scientists funded by the U.S. government, according to federal spending records and the researchers’ own disclosures. 

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged Tuesday with smuggling a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the United States in 2024. The fungus is classified in the scientific literature as a “potential agroterrorism weapon” because it affects wheat, barley, maize, and rice by causing “head blight,” according to the Justice Department. 

The incident is again raising concerns about the tendrils of Chinese Communist Party influence inside U.S. research institutions and broader society, just five years after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed federal funding to a lab in Wuhan, China where the virus is believed to have escaped and where dangerous gain of function research was being conducted.

The Justice Department noted Yunqing Jian’s electronics contained evidence describing “her membership in and loyalty” to the Chinese Communist Party. The Trump administration, especially the FBI, have doubled down on efforts to root out Chinese Communist Party influence, especially in higher education, by revoking visas for Chinese students at American schools. 

Funding from U.S. taxpayers

Records reviewed by Just the News show that both China-born scientists charged this week were affiliated with a University of Michigan research laboratory led by two senior researchers who are also Chinese citizens and are receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health for studying plant immunity. 

Ping He and Libo Shan, both of whom completed their undergraduate studies in China and doctoral and postdoctoral studies in the United States, are the senior faculty members at the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction Working Groups housed at the University of Michigan’s Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. The laboratory conducts research on plant immunity, according to its website. 

According to NIH records, Libo Shan and Ping He received more than $7.6 million in total funding between two sponsored projects, awarded one to each scientist. Both NIH projects (R35GM144275 and R35GM149197) were cited in at least two research papers involving both Jian and Liu, the indicted Chinese nationals. 

Other research papers on which both Jian and Liu were authors cite awards from the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The FBI told Just the News Wednesday night that it is aware of the federal funding trail and believes the entire case exposes a serious national security risk with U.S. scientific research relying on foreign scientists, particularly from commust China.

“The CCP’s quiet infiltration of our research ecosystem is a direct threat to our national security, biosecurity, and economic independence,” Erica Knight, an adviser to FBI Director Kash Patel, told Just the News. “The Director understands these threats better than anyone, and under his leadership, we will aggressively root out every trace of corrupt foreign influence.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the incident shows that the threat of Chinese involvement in dangerous research funded by the U.S. government, first exposed during investigations into COVID-19, is still ongoing. 

“It has been obvious for years that Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins not only funded dangerous research, but directed funding to scientists loyal to China, not America,” Johnson told Just the News. “My hope is that we can uncover and expose the extent to which their blatant actions harmed our nation and the world.”

Both Jian and Liu worked with the University of Michigan laboratory led by Shan and He, according to current and archived versions of the laboratory’s webpage. 

Niether Dr. Shan nor Dr. He immediately responded to requests for comment from Just the News. 

The provided biography shows Yunqing Jian joined the laboratory in August 2022 as a postdoctoral fellow. She is originally from Sichuan, China and completed her doctoral studies at Zhejiang University in China in 2020 where she “studied the mechanisms of how fungi combat with plant-derived stresses,” the web page reads. 

The indictment shows that Jian also received funding through China’s “Postdoctoral International Exchange Program and the Second Class of Grants from the 69th Batch of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation” from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024. 

Changed his story after questioning by CBP

Zunyong Liu, who is reportedly in a relationship with Jian, was also affiliated with the laboratory before he returned to China in July 2024 after trying and failing to enter the United States with a red plant material in his backpack, according to the Justice Department indictment. Liu changed his story under interrogation about the biological material, prompting authorities to turn him back. 

Liu was listed as a postdoctoral fellow at the Michigan laboratory until shortly before he was turned away at customs, according to an archived version of the website. He is also listed as an author on at least four scientific studies produced under the NIH grants associated with the University’s laboratory, the records show. 

“When Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers questioned LIU, he made false statements to CBP Officers about the purpose of his visit to the United States, and his knowledge of the existence of the biological pathogen in his possession,” the indictment reads. “Ultimately, LIU admitted to smuggling the pathogen and stated that he brought the pathogen into the United States so that he could conduct research on it at a laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, JIAN, worked.”

According to the criminal complaint, Zunyong Liu currently works at a university in China and conducts research on the same plant pathogens as his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian.

Liu and Jian were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud.

You can read the criminal complaint here: Jian Liu complaint.pdf

The Justice Department laid out evidence that the two researchers collaborated on at least one prior occasion to smuggle an unknown seed into the United States, according to their communications on the Chinese messaging application WeChat, Just the News reported Wednesday. 

“Teacher Liang’s seeds must be placed well,” Liu wrote to Jian in August 2022, according to the indictment. 

“Where to put it? I only have one pair of shoes. The insole cannot be pulled off,” she replied.

“Where did the seeds get put? In the tube?” Liu asked later. 

“I put them in my Martin boots… in a small bag. The ziplock bag. Very small,” Jian said. “I stuffed them in the shoes,” she later added. 

Customs and Border Patrol records show Jian entered the country via a flight from Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco International Airport. Those records show that Jian did not declare any biological materials at Customs, according to the indictment.

A pattern of crimes in Chinese/Univ. of Michigan nexus

“We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission,” the University of Michigan said in a statement. 

“It is important to note that the university has received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals. We have and will continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement in its ongoing investigation and prosecution,” the statement continued.

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., a surgeon-turned congressman, said the smuggling incident is part of a larger, multipronged Chinese effort to “attack” the United States. 

“[For]…Chinese nationals to think they could sneak something in and bring something into this country to do harm to the country really, you know, if you want to be very blunt—blunt about it—almost is an act of war, but it’s done by a private citizen,” Murphy told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“So we have to be hyper-vigilant, especially in these days where, you know, China is attacking us every day by bringing in fentanyl. China’s attacking us every day with cyberattacks. We have to be hyper-vigilant of these types of pathogens coming into the country,” he added.

This is far from the first incident involving Chinese nationals associated with the University of Michigan. In some ways, the school has been a hub for China-related activities in the United States, including repeat incidents of Chinese students from the school photographing military bases in different corners of the country. 

In the summer of 2023, National Guard soldiers discovered five Chinese University of Michigan students near Camp Grayling, about 200 miles from the school. The students were later charged by the Justice Department for covering up their real reason for traveling to the area, to take photographs of military vehicles at the base for one of the largest National Guard exercises in the country, Just the News previously reported. The University of Michigan boasts a joint study program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which brings students to the United States for a two-year program.

In a similar case in 2020, two University of Michigan students were arrested in Key West, Florida after driving on to the Sigsbee Annex Naval Air Station and photographing the property, including military structures.

Robert Charles, a former State Department official and naval intelligence officer, warned that Chinese researchers at the Michigan lab could be a “canary in the coal mine” of Chinese efforts to target the U.S. food supply, especially considering this latest incident involved a fungus that could target crops. 

“Okay, the Chinese are adept at infiltration, at espionage, and at doing it in a way that is, if not inscrutable, intended to be very quiet,” Charles told the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

“And so I look at this and I say…is this going to be the beginning…of a discovery,” he continued. 

“The Chinese did a study about five years ago of what the biggest national security issue would be for them going ahead, and what it would be for us… [and] It said that food was the number one item that would trigger national security concerns for both countries,” Charles explained.

Reprinted with permission from Just The News by Steven Richards and John Solomon.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.