A Chinese scientist entered the US last year with a toxic fungus that had the potential to be used as an agricultural terrorism weapon stashed in his backpack, federal authorities said on Tuesday.
The pathogen is known as Fusarium graminearum, which can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice, and sicken livestock and people, the FBI said in a court filing in Detroit.
A scientific journal describes it as a “potential agroterrorism weapon,” the FBI said.
Photo: US District Court For the Eastern District of Michigan via AP
Liu Zunyong, 34, a researcher currently in China, brought the fungus into the US while visiting his girlfriend, Jian Yunqing, 33, in July last year, court documents showed.
The couple were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud.
“The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals, including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party, are of the gravest national security concerns,” US Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr said.
Jian appeared in court and was returned to jail to await a bond hearing today.
In July last year, Liu was turned away at the Detroit airport and sent back to China after changing his story during an interrogation about red plant material discovered in his backpack, the FBI said.
He initially claimed ignorance about the samples, but later said he was planning to use the material for research at a University of Michigan lab where Jian worked and where Liu previously worked, the FBI said.
Authorities found a scientific article on Liu’s phone, titled “Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions,” it said.
A week before arriving in the US, Liu exchanged messages with Jian, who said: “It’s a pity that I still have to work for you,” it said.
“Once this is done, everything else will be easy,” Liu replied, according to the FBI.
In February, FBI agents visited Jian at the campus lab, where she said: “100 percent no,” when asked if she had been assisting Liu with the pathogen at the lab.
The FBI said it found a signed statement on her phone expressing her support for the Communist Party of China.
Messages between the two last year suggest that Jian was already tending to Fusarium graminearum at the campus lab before Liu was caught at the Detroit airport, the FBI said.
The university does not have federal permits to handle it.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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