ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Michigan News Source) – Chengxuan Han, the Chinese national student who was arrested and charged on Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, reportedly exhibited very suspicious behavior.

Han was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan and pursuing a Ph.D. from the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

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When she first applied for her student visa on March 18, 2025, her English was so bad she couldn’t answer basic questions about herself or her research. Then nine days later, when again applying for her student visa, “she spoke credibly about her educational background, current studies and post graduate plans,” according to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI.

Han also had deleted the contents of her electronic devices three days before entering the U.S., something she said she did to “start fresh” once in America, the complaint stated.

Han was arrested this month and charged with smuggling goods into the U.S. and making false statements.

Chinese influence in Michigan.

The college she was attending – Huazhong University of Science and Technology – has played a big role in promoting Chinese influence in Michigan.

That university is located in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, China with a population of 11 million people as well as the home of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which the FBI deemed as the “most likely” origin of COVID-19 during a lab accident.

But the Huazhong University of Science and Technology also partnered with Michigan State University and Wayne State University in 2008 to set up highly controversial schools that tried to immerse students in Chinese culture known as Confucius Institutes.

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“It’s part of the China wave many believe will be vital to Michigan’s future,” wrote Detroit Free Press reporter Carol Cain in 2008 about the Chinese schools.

More Chinese connections in Michigan.

In December of 2008, Wayne State University announced it was teaming with the Huazhong University of Science and Technology to create the Confucius Institute. It closed in 2021.

MSU created the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University in 2006, but it was closed in 2021.

Under the Donald Trump administration, Congress cut funding to the Chinese schools in 2018 and nearly all of the institutes closed.

Nationwide, the Confucius Institutes grew to as many as 100 on college campuses but have since dropped to about five, according to a Oct. 2023 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “The institute is designed to promote the teaching and understanding of Chinese language and culture and support Chinese language education in metro Detroit,” the 2008 WSU press release stated.

Chinese propaganda.

In 2021, the Heritage Foundation criticized the Confucius Institutes movement. The Heritage Foundation claimed that if teachers taught anything but propaganda, their families in China were threatened and they were banished from returning to China. In 2022, Rachelle Peterson, director of policy at the National Association of Scholars, said the Confucius Institutes were “hailed by the Chinese Communist Party as an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.”

Peterson wrote that Confucius Institutes brought Chinese nationals to college campuses to teach about China using government-approved material.