Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Smuggling Dangerous Fungus Into U.S.

Two Chinese nationals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party were charged with conspiracy, visa fraud and smuggling a dangerous biological pathogen into the United States, U.S. officials announced Tuesday.

Yunqing Jian worked at a University of Michigan laboratory, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, worked as a researcher at a university in China. The two conspired to smuggle a dangerous fungus into the U.S. from China via Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Customs authorities found four different bags on Liu, each containing different varieties of the fungus, hidden within a ball of crumpled up tissues.

Chinese threat: The fungus, Fusarium graminearum, is classified by the fbi as “a potential agroterrorism weapon.” It can devastate many species including barley, corn, rice and wheat. Its toxins can cause vomiting, liver damage and reproductive defects in humans and livestock. The fungus has caused billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.

This kind of potent fungus could be used as a biological weapon of terror. Such an attack could cripple America’s agricultural industry and cause significant harm to the American people.

Wake-up call: These arrests come amid a national effort to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” declared U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week.

The fbi said the evidence indicates that Yunqing had “expressed loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and had received funding from the Chinese government.”

As tensions increase between the U.S. and China, the realities of a potential war are coming into clearer focus.

The Bible prophesies of the rise of a menacing Chinese superpower that will threaten the safety and security of the U.S. To understand, read “Wake Up to the Threat From China.”