Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the US the fungus Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People's Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of which was conducted at the University of Michigan. It is further alleged that Jian's boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a press release that the Justice Department "has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm." The FBI states that the fungus Fusarium graminearum causes “head blight,” a disease that can devastate wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Jian was scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Detroit for her initial appearance on the complaint, the DOJ said. @ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2-chinese-nationals-charged-smuggling-potential-agroterrorism-fungus/story?id=122454213
