One of them, Yunqing Jian, a researcher at the University of Michigan, was arrested by the FBI in a joint operation with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Jian and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu were accused of smuggling an agroterrorism agent ‘Fusarium graminearum’, in the US for a research study, FBI director Kash Patel said. Liu, too, is a researcher studying the same pathogen at a Chinese University.
According to evidence obtained by the FBI, Jian had demonstrated allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party and had previously received funding from the Chinese government for conducting research on this pathogen in China.
Liu is alleged to have first lied, then admitted to also smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America—through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The development comes amid Trump administration’s increasing scrutiny of international students from mainland China and Hong Kong. State Secretary Marco Rubio on May 28 said it will ‘aggressively’ revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
“This case is a sobering reminder that the Chinese Communist Party is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences… putting American lives and our economy at serious risk,” Patel wrote.
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(Edited by : Vipal Durge)
