Expert calls to sever US-China relations after toxic fungus smuggling arrest

After the pattern of recent covert communist Chinese infiltrations of the U.S. continued with the arrest of two suspected “bioterrorists” in Michigan this week, one expert said it’s time to sever relations with China completely.

“The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China,” attorney and Chinese Communist Party expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital. “And I know people think that’s drastic, but we are being overwhelmed, and we are going to get hit. And we are going to get hit really hard. Not just with COVID, not just with fentanyl, but perhaps with something worse.”

Chang was responding to recent news of Chinese nationals Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, who, over a two-year period, were allegedly smuggling Fusarium graminearum into the U.S. and studying it in labs. Jian was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, whose research was funded in part by the People’s Republic of China.

Baggies seized by Border Patrol containing the dangerous fungus Fusarium graminearum. (FBI)

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Fusarium graminearum is a toxic fungus that causes a crop-killing “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice that “is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year,” according to the Department of Justice.

It is also toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting, liver damage and “reproductive defects in humans and livestock.”

“This couple should be sent to Guantánamo,” Chang said. “This Chinese government has declared a ‘People’s War’ on us.”

A “People’s War” is a military strategy developed by brutal former Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976, known for killing tens of millions of Chinese people via starvation and political persecution.

Such a war calls for a protracted military and political onslaught meant to exhaust the enemy.

A large statue of Mao Zedong, erected during the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1969, waves from Zhongshan Square in Shenyang, China, in front of a billboard for a bank on May 17, 2002. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Jian and Liu were arrested earlier this week and charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud.

“We’re Americans, so we think we’re entitled to ignore the propaganda of hostile regimes,” Chang said. “But for a communist party, [a People’s War] has great resonance, and what they’re doing with their strident anti-Americanism is creating a justification to strike our country.”

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“This means, for example, that this couple should be sent to Guantánamo,” he said. “This was an attack on the United States at a time when China thought it was at war with us.”

Since the 2019 People’s War decree referenced by Chang, a laundry list of Chinese and Chinese-aligned infiltrators have been caught red-handed in the U.S., especially at American universities.

Here’s a look back at some of those instances:

Chinese nationals breach Key West military base

In 2020, two Chinese nationals who were graduate students at the University of Michigan pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a breach at a Naval air station in Key West, Florida, where they were caught illegally entering and photographing defense infrastructure.

Harvard professor found guilty

Charles Lieber is not a Chinese national, but was convicted in 2021 of making false statements to authorities and failing to report income from his work with China’s Wuhan University of Technology. He also had a contract with China’s Thousand Talents Program, which “incentivize [their] members to steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national, military, and economic goals,” according to the FBI.

He was sentenced to time served, which was two days in prison, and two years of supervised release with six months of home confinement. He also paid various fines and restitution of more than $88,000.

The Guard of Honor of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army performs a flag-raising ceremony at Bayi Square in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province of China, to celebrate the 97th anniversary on China’s Army Day on Aug. 1, 2024. (Ma Yue/VCG via Getty Images)

Espionage attempt by former technology student

In 2022, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who had been a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was convicted after attempting to commit espionage and theft of trade secrets.

Chaoqun gathered information from American defense contractors and engineers as part of a plot by high-level Chinese intelligence officials to glean information about U.S. technology advancements.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Camp Grayling incident

In 2024, the FBI filed charges against five Chinese nationals, all students at the University of Michigan, after they were caught allegedly photographing a joint American-Taiwanese training exercise at Camp Grayling, a National Guard training facility in Michigan.

Their studies were part of a joint program with Shanghai-based Jiao Tong University.

University of Minnesota drone spying

Late last year, a University of Minnesota student and Chinese national named Fengyun Shi was convicted in federal court for illegally taking photos of Norfolk, Virginia, naval bases using a drone.

He was sentenced to six months in jail and then deported in May of this year.

Fengyun Shi is deported by ICE. (ICE)

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“We can lose our country, even though we’re the far stronger nation, because we are not defending ourselves with the vigor and determination that is necessary,” Chang told Fox News Digital.

Chang also noted that in 2020, Americans in all 50 states received seeds from China unsolicited, which he said “was an attempt to plant invasive species” in the U.S. He also noted that this year, Chinese online retailer Temu did the same.

“Imagine walking into your local grocery store and seeing empty shelves where bread, cereal, and even pet food used to be,” Jason Pack, a former FBI supervisory special agent, told Fox News Digital. “Prices spike. Supply chains slow down. All because a foreign actor deliberately targeted the crops that keep America fed. That may sound far-fetched, but it’s exactly the kind of scenario that becomes possible when someone brings a dangerous agricultural pathogen into the United States.

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“It doesn’t take a bomb to disrupt an economy. It takes a biological agent like Fusarium graminearum introduced into the wrong place at the wrong time. Food prices rise. Livestock suffer. Exports stop. The economic ripple effects are enormous.”