Votto
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- Oct 31, 2012
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Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that they planned to study at a University of Michigan lab last summer, a complaint filed Tuesday says.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud for bringing in the fungus Fusarium graminearum from China, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
“The Department of Justice has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Fusarium graminearum is described as “a potential agroterrorism weapon” that can cause disease in certain plants like wheat, corn, rice and barley, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic loss worldwide each year,” an FBI affidavit in support of the complaint says.
“The toxins produced by Fusarium graminearum cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in livestock and humans,” the complaint states.
The 25-page criminal complaint does not allege that the defendants – who investigators say were in a relationship – had any plans to spread the fungus beyond the laboratory. But it says Liu was aware of the restrictions on the material and deliberately hid it in a wad of tissues in his backpack.
The US was that close to another Covid like event This is why Trump needs to put the clamp down on everything Chinese coming into the US.
