EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – It’s not every day you see someone from Michigan State University rushing to defend the University of Michigan – but here we are.
A University of Michigan (U-M) lab has come under fire recently after several incidents in which Chinese students allegedly smuggled in biological materials, sparking serious concerns about biosecurity and lab oversight. However, before you reach for the hazmat gear, one scientist at Michigan State University says he thinks it’s less about agroterrorism and more about academic corner-cutting.
The backstory.
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In July 2024, federal officials at Detroit Metro Airport intercepted Chinese national Zunyong Liu attempting to bring plant material – later identified as a toxic producing fungus – into the U.S. Authorities allege his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, a 33-year-old scientist at a U-M lab, helped him smuggle Fusarium graminearum, a crop-destroying fungus considered a potential agroterrorism agent. The fungus poses serious risks to food supplies and can harm humans and livestock. Jian now faces federal charges, and her attorneys are pushing for a quick resolution to the case.
More recently on June 8, a Chinese national visiting scholar with U-M was arrested and charged with smuggling biological materials into the U.S. Doctoral student Chengxuan Han was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport on a J-1 visa after U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered she had sent four packages containing roundworm-related biological materials from Wuhan to U-M and that she lied about them during inspection. This is C. elegans, which is a globally occurring nematode, often used in labs to study genetics and cell development.
Han is expected to plead guilty according to the Detroit News. Han faces three counts of smuggling goods into the U.S. and one count of lying to investigators – charges that carry the potential for more than 20 years in federal prison.
Combined, these incidents have raised national security alarms amid concerns over foreign-sponsored research activities at American universities and even more specifically at U-M.
Expert says this looks more like sloppy science than sabotage.
The charges hint at potential agroterrorism, but according to Martin Chilvers, a professor of plant pathology at Michigan State University (MSU), this situation might be less about bioterrorism and more about overzealous students skirting red tape.
“I have not, seen any indication here that there’s any bioterrorism intent,” said Dr. Martin Chilvers in an interview with Michigan News Source on June 5, before the second incident occurred. He added that it looks like Liu and Jian were possibly “cutting corners” because the school didn’t have a license for the fungus they brought in. The FBI affidavit says that the MPMI Laboratory at U-M has permits from the USDA to study Fusarium oxysporum but not Fusarium graminearum.
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While the unauthorized import technically violates USDA-APHIS regulations – which exist to prevent the introduction of dangerous plant pathogens – the reality, Chilvers said, is far less sinister to him because the fungus is already here. He said, “There’s probably some level of fungal toxin in every single bag of rice or every single crop that’s harvested.” He goes on to say, “What it’s about is minimizing that toxin and doing a good job at controlling it. And so we test to make sure that the levels are below threshold. If they’re not, then they may consider other uses for that grain, so it might not go into food supply.”
A common fungus.
Fusarium graminearum is hardly exotic – Michigan farmers already battle it every season to prevent crop loss and toxin contamination. MSU’s Martin Chilvers estimates the fungus causes around $125 million in wheat damage and $174 million in corn losses annually based on numbers from the Crop Protection Network.
The “vomitoxin” that Fusarium graminearum produces can make both humans and animals sick, but it’s nothing new. Chilvers said that farmers routinely test for it post-harvest, and grain elevators reject any tainted loads.
Why bring in the fungus?
The reason for importing international strains, despite the fungus’s presence in Michigan, may be scientific rather than malicious, according to Chilvers – potentially to study how different variants behave under changing conditions, such as shifts in climate, and to improve management strategies.
As for the eyebrow-raising academic paper titled “Plant-Pathogen Warfare Under Changing Climate Conditions,” which was found in one of the suspect’s possession and cited in the criminal complaint? Chilvers calls it a “harmless article” and a “call to address plant diseases through more research.”
Biological warfare on the farm?
A bipartisan bill introduced June 25 in the U.S. House – dubbed the PLANT Act (Preventing Lethal Agricultural and National Threats) – aims to thwart agroterrorism by creating a new federal crime for knowingly or recklessly importing high-risk agricultural biological agents. Authored by Iowa Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, the legislation responds to recent arrests involving Chinese nationals smuggling pathogens into the country. The PLANT Act proposes penalties of up to 10 years in prison, escalating to 20 years if the act causes over $1 million in damage or benefits a foreign government. The bill also empowers the DOJ, USDA, and CBP with enhanced legal tools to detect and disrupt biological threats before they can devastate American agriculture.
What is the intent of smuggling in pathogens?
Admittedly, the optics aren’t great in the U-M-linked events – smuggled spores, Chinese nationals, a sensitive university lab, and encrypted phone messages – but until these cases go to trial, much remains unknown. Even in situations involving potential espionage, the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” still applies.
Regardless of whether these are cases of bioterrorism or just regulatory corner-cutting, both the University of Michigan and the involved Chinese students are now firmly on law enforcement’s radar – and our political representatives.
