Roving Periscope: In five days, the US arrests third Chinese scientist for ‘bioterrorism’
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In 2020, US President Donald Trump accused China of spreading COVID-19, and called the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” Five years on, his administration has arrested a Chinese researcher from Wuhan, from where the pandemic is suspected to have spread to the world, for allegedly trying to smuggle “biological materials” into the US.
This is the second such incident in less than a week. On June 4, a Chinese couple was arrested for trying to smuggle a dangerous biological pathogen that could be used as an agricultural terror weapon, the media reported on Tuesday.
On Monday, the FBI arrested Chengxuan Han, a PhD student, in Detroit for sending four parcels with “biological materials” to the US.
Not much is known about the alleged content of the parcels except that it is related to roundworms.
“Yesterday, @FBIDetroit arrested a second Chinese national on charges of smuggling biological materials into the US and lying to federal agents. This individual is Chengxuan Han, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a PhD student in Wuhan, China,” said FBI chief Kash Patel.
Han is the third Chinese person charged with similar allegations in recent days, he said.
Han’s Wuhan connection raises suspicion against the backdrop of the COVID lab leak theory; the FBI believes that the virus likely originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.
Han has been accused of shipping four packages of “biological material” from China to four persons working at a lab at the University of Michigan in the US.
“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China – to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory – is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said the US attorney, Jerome F Gorgon.
Despite initially making false statements to federal agents about the packages, she confessed during questioning by the FBI and Customs officials. She had erased her electronic device a day before her questioning, said the FBI director.
“Upon arriving at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on June 8, Han allegedly made false statements to federal officials regarding the packages she had previously mailed and had erased her electronic device just days prior. In a follow-up interview, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents,” he said in a post.
In the June 4 incident, two Chinese nationals – Zunyong Liu, 34, and Yunqing Jian, 33 – were accused of smuggling Fusarium graminearum, classified as a potential agroterrorism weapon in scientific literature. It could destroy crops worth billions and cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive issues in humans and livestock.
Liu, a researcher in China, had brought the fungus into the US while visiting his girlfriend Jian in July 2024, allegedly for research at a University of Michigan lab where Jian worked, according to the FBI complaint.
With two such smuggling incidents being reported in less than a week, Patel accused the Chinese Communist Party of working relentlessly to undermine American research institutions. But the FBI and other federal agencies are focused on cracking down on such pathogen smuggling operations, he added.
