The sense that this is not good expands when you consider the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the current conflict between the United States and China. Two Chinese researchers in Michigan have been charged with smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that devastates agricultural crops.
Was this an ‘agroterrorism’ operation intended to unleash a serious problem in the U.S. farming system? That intent cannot be dismissed easily.
MICHIGAN – Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “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 it at the University of Michigan, officials said.
“The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” a DOJ press release said.
“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,” according to the press release.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement 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 says it causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.
“The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals — including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party — are of the gravest national security concerns. These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into in the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgan said. (read more)
PAM BONDI…..There in lies the problem…………………….
I know Rubio is revoking a lot of student visas, I hope Chinese students are way up on the list.
You cant make this stuff up. China is at war with us and they want to destroy us by ant means. We need to economically destroy China. Trump needs to do to China what Reagan did to the USSR.
Reagan had a more willing partner in CONgress than President Trump has. The courts also weren’t hampering his attempts.
This won’t be simple nor easy and China is working overtime to isolate America and American interests.
They are getting tremendous assistance from CONgress, republican and democrat. Every move President Trump makes he is thwarted by courts, CONgress and all the alliances China has advanced.
The CCP candidate winning the South Korean election is awful. A public statement has already been made saying they won’t be settling with President Trump any time soon on tariffs and cozying up to the CCP. Ugh.
It’s pretty obvious the CIA and Five Eyes gave intel to Ukraine to pull off the drone attack which hit deep inside Russia.
Our President has affirmed twice that he was not informed prior to the attack and you have a better understanding of all the interests, foreign and domestic, aligning against President Trump and MAGA. The CCP doesn’t want America and Russia getting along in any way and our warhawks want war with Russia in a big way.
Remember how they implied Russia blew up its own pipeline? Utter bull.
I’m beyond tired of our IC playing cutesy and using Ukraine as a front for a proxy war with Russia that the American people and President Trump do not want.
These are incredibly perilous times and enemies abound. We essentially are facing economic warfare on all fronts and too many here and abroad are pushing us every closer to a kinetic war, also on many fronts.
Excellent and astute post.
Thank you TJ, much appreciated.
If you watch episodes of “Airport” you wouldnt be as shocked as what even ordinary people attempt to bring into a country.
I have seen bags full of seeds, raw chicken, raw fish ..
I am not suprised that someone would come in with a bag full of petridishes of whatever.
Not saying one thing over the other, but it is likely stuff like this happens all the time.
Why is this story suddenly in the MSM newscycle? Because a narrative needs to be built on China.
US wants to pivot the war effort into the Indo-Pacific for China containment (using proxies like Philipines, Taiwan etc.)
The war in Ukraine needs to be frozen if it can be helped and continued later (therefore incessant hammering on Kellogg ceasefire) so the US can pivot to China.
This story fits nicely.
And if your response is “Hey Bob you are wrong!” that is fine. I could be wrong. However consider this is not even my opinion, I am just repeating with this statement what is already been written and published in the US Think Tank policy papers on foreign policy. That are freely available for people to read.
That being said fungus is bad. I have no warm heart for China either.
I do like the common sense and objectivity.
Example of Narrative building: did anyone else see people drop dead in the street from Covid other than the propaganda movies we saw in the pandemic? Did anyone else ever find those weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was accused of having?
We have to keep thinking critcally. Why! are you reading the stuff you are reading.
One of our Chinese foreign exchange students ordered all kinds of food from China while she was here. When she opened one of the packages that had “T-shirt” written on it as the description of what was inside, and pulled out some nasty looking chicken parts — I called U.S. Customs and told them what was happening.
They could not have been bothered.
I told myself it was probably small potatoes to them, that they had bigger fish to fry. At least that’s what I hoped.
In my WMD class at a highly respected institution of higher learning where I studied HLS…agroterrorism was touched on…to a bug/germ/fungus that does exactly what this fungus does. That class was in 2006.
Frightening does not even begin to touch the periphery of this.
Harvard University is FULL of these people in the medical sciences, this I know from personal experience.
Deport them all!
Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases
Harvard Professor with bio-smuggling form.
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related
Yah. Global warming is gonna cause starvation.
Right.
Not naked, evil Communist aggression.
Shame on ANY of you who continue to shop Temu.
Or anything like it.
Check labels.
Resist much.
Dead on!
When are we going to stop allowing people from enemy countries (or any country) to attend our colleges? Are we really that stupid? Apparently so.
Reminds me of an episode of “The Americans”, except it’s China doing the agri-terror not Russia clumsily attempting to.
Clearly this is terrorism, what other explanation can there be. But the larger question is Biden flooded this country with hundreds of thousands of hostile third worlders and the courts are protecting them. After the Kiev drone strokes the implications for national security are clear. Either the security of the country comes first or we allow a judicial coup.
So I read into this biodefense report and, as expected, the recommendations are more government, more money, more bureaucrats, more departments, more regulations, and less freedom for you and me.
Since that approach has solved all of the other problems in this country I’m glad they recommended all of that. /s
Of course, when I saw “past commissioner Lisa Monaco” spelled out in the Acknowledgements I pretty much knew where this report was going.
The death penalty is 100% called for here.
Why are we still letting them in; as if COVID wasn’t enough…
Great policy.
Tulsi and ICE Barbie are not doing a great job. Heck, President Trump is not doing a great job.
So Trump takes office (again.) Levies China and closes their loophole, inflicting immense damage on their economy. Democrats dutifully scream bloody murder. And then a catastrophic pathogen “gets out.”
Almost like they’re running a playbook.
How many know in Michigan Chinese nationals (non citizens) have been voting ?
One was caught when he went to retrieve his ballot and was denied because it had already been cast and that’s when he was caught.
He was arrested and evaded the U.S. using a 2nd passport.
I’m sorry but this is not being taken as seriously as it should be and every single Chinese National and researcher should be removed from this country because it’s a multi layer national security risk and attack.
What ever happened to the Harvard professor and his two Chinese CCP PLA handlers that the DOJ caught attempting to leave with viles of clear liquid pre C**id ?
The same scenario happened in Canada as well.
All the Farm land purchased around military facilities and over 700 acres in Florida for Primate quarantine that Meatball allowed. This country is being attacked by all sides including by our own politicians.
China has a war strategy book called Sun Tzu’s Military Arts Book written around 500 B.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu
I (the Japanese) haven’t read the details in detail, but the key point is a guide to winning without actually fighting.
At that time, the modern-day spies were sent inside the enemy, creating a fifth row and causing them to collapse.
It is also a strategy to slowly weaken the enemy through skirmishes.
The modern-day Communist Party’s upper echelons have adopted this idea.
The Communist Party requires that all Chinese people be obedient to the Chinese government no matter where they are in the world.
In reality, they use methods that will cause great disadvantage to the families and relatives of foreign Chinese people who advocate against China.
This is a sinister way that is hard to imagine for Americans and liberal countries, with many Franks, both Republicans and Democrats.
I think people in liberal countries need to be very vigilant.