There has been a lot of angst expressed about the Chinese buying up vast swathes of US farmland, perhaps making them the second-largest threat to US agriculture after Bill Gates (I kid, I kid…sort of).
But what if the Chinese aren’t purchasing that land to gain access to land adjacent to US military bases or to somehow seize all our arable land (good luck with that, China — the US is very large indeed), but rather to threaten the US as the world’s breadbasket in a tangible way?
🇺🇸🇨🇳CHINESE COUPLE CAUGHT SNEAKING CROP-KILLING FUNGUS INTO MICHIGAN LAB?!
2 Chinese nationals tried smuggling a deadly fungus into the U.S. that can destroy crops and poison food.
Prosecutors say Zunyong Liu flew it into Detroit for his girlfriend Yunqing Jian, who works at a… pic.twitter.com/JXnu9dIMd2
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 3, 2025
CHINESE COUPLE CAUGHT SNEAKING CROP-KILLING FUNGUS INTO MICHIGAN LAB?!
2 Chinese nationals tried smuggling a deadly fungus into the U.S. that can destroy crops and poison food.
Prosecutors say Zunyong Liu flew it into Detroit for his girlfriend Yunqing Jian, who works at a University of Michigan lab not cleared for biohazards.
The fungus, Fusarium graminearum, devastates wheat, corn and rice, causes vomiting and liver damage, and is labeled a potential agroterrorism weapon.
It triggers billions in crop losses yearly.
Officials say Jian’s research was funded by China and that she’s a Communist Party member.
Liu was deported.
Jian faces charges of conspiracy, smuggling, visa fraud and lying to officials.
U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. called it a major national security threat.
China’s purchase of farmland may not present much of a threat to US agricultural production, but Chinese nationals associated with the Chinese Communist Party smuggling in deadly fungi to “study” just might present a real threat to American agriculture.
The alleged actions of Chinese nationals – including a loyal member of the CCP – are of the gravest national security concerns. These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America. https://t.co/GX1yCFRTtK pic.twitter.com/Zo2GljWZvp
— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) June 3, 2025
The fungus being smuggled into the US is not some benign form of mushroom that the Chinese like to eat, but a known bioterrorism threat. There is no conceivable reason for these Chinese “researchers” to be smuggling it into the United States legitimately.
When are those in power going to realize China is and has been for a very long time waging a quiet war against us?
Patel: Chinese nationals charged with smuggling ‘known agroterrorism agent’ into US is a ‘direct threat’ https://t.co/BHpJO8SMOf #FoxNews
— Sidge S. Mondo ن (@Magister_Mondo) June 3, 2025
The fungus is described in scientific literature as a “potential agroterrorism weapon”, according to the US Attorney’s Office, adding it is responsible for “billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.”
Officials further allege Ms Jian received funding from the Chinese government for her research on the pathogen in China. They also claim she is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
United States Attorney Jerome F Gorgon Jr described the allegations as of the “gravest national security concerns”.
“These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into in the [sic] heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme.”
The investigation was a joint effort between the FBI and US Customs and Border Protection.
The Chinese have been amping up their gray zone war against the United States, infiltrating our telecommunications system, futzing around with our civilian infrastructure control systems, harassing our allies, and now, apparently, preparing for a bioterrorist attack on the United States which, I assume, would be hard to prove was their doing if it came off. Fungi, after all, are natural.
“This case is a sobering reminder that the Chinese Communist Party continues to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate our institutions and target our food supply, an act that could cripple our economy and endanger American lives,” Patel told Fox in a statement. “Smuggling a known agroterrorism agent into the U.S. is not just a violation of law, it’s a direct threat to national security. I commend the FBI Detroit Division and our partners at CBP for stopping this biological threat before it could do real damage.”
University of Michigan research fellow Yunqing Jian and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu – both citizens of the People’s Republic of China – have been charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Tuesday. The investigation is being conducted by the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Was the Chinese Communist Party really considering a bioterror attack on the United States? Who knows? Preparing for something and actually doing it are two different things. Sometimes, just having a capability serves a purpose, although generally speaking, bioweapons are off limits in a way that nuclear weapons are not.
What makes a bioweapon like this a “gray zone” weapon is that directly proving the connection between a biological agent and its creator/distributor is much harder than attributing a bomb to a specific actor. Even COVID-19, which pretty obviously came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has been deniable for both China and Fauci. If you can’t prove to everybody’s satisfaction COVID’s origin, even with all the smoking guns, how could you convince anybody of China’s culpability.
If these guys hadn’t been caught red-handed and the fungus wound up in our food supply, could we prove that China was involved? Where would you start looking? How could you prove anything? It’s a fungus, and fungi are everywhere.
China doesn’t want to go to war with the United States–not the bombs and bullets type of war. But they sure want us weakened. Would slashing our food supply and exports serve that purpose?
You bet it would.
