Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said.
“The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” a DOJ press release said.
“It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America – through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport – so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,” according to the press release.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s sketchy, but I can’t understand the need to smuggle a fungus into the US when said fungus has a global distribution naturally, including in North America.
But I can see the potential for this to be weaponized, especially if modified, so the “research” is concerning for that reason.
