Chinese researcher in alleged plot to smuggle crop-killing fungus into US will remain in custody while seeking private counsel
The Chinese researcher accused of helping smuggle a potentially devastating crop-killing fungus into the US will remain in custody until she retains private counsel, according to reports.
Yunqing Jian, 33, appeared in a Detroit courtroom for a detention hearing Thursday afternoon, where a public defender assigned to her case asked the court to reconvene once Jian can hire her own lawyer.
The judge consented and scheduled a new detention hearing for June 13. Jian, a Chinese national and researcher at the University of Michigan, will remain in custody until then, CBS News reported.
Yunqing Jian, 33, is seeking private counsel after being assigned a public defender.
Sanilac County Jail
She was arrested on June 3, nearly a year after her boyfriend — 34-year-old Zunyong Liu — was stopped by Customs and Border Patrol after arriving at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a plane from Shanghai last July.
Liu was found to be carrying samples of Fusarium graminearum, a fungus with the potential to wreak havoc on American crops and farming if successfully manipulated to resist treatment.
The danger could be so great that one Trump administration official characterized it as 'an attack on the American food supply' while speaking with The Post.
Jian was working as a lab researcher at the University of Michigan through funding provided by the Chinese government last summer when her beau — himself a researcher at a Chinese university — was caught trying to enter the country with the samples on the way to visit her.
Liu initially tried to hide the samples and then denied they were his, but eventually fessed up and told officials that he wanted to study them at the University of Michigan lab where his girlfriend did similar work.
Jiang was arrested on June 3, nearly a year after her husband was barred from the US
On his phone, agents found a PDF article about 'Plant-Pathogen Warfare' that described Fusarium graminearum as 'an example of a destructive disease and pathogen for crops' that is 'responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.'
He was barred from entering the country and put on a plane back to China.
Jian was interviewed by the FBI about the incident at a University of Michigan lab in February, and told investigators that she first learned about her boyfriend's plan when he was stopped at the airport.
But searches into her communications with Liu showed the pair had discussed sneaking samples of fungus and seeds past US Customs since at least 2022 — and that in 2024 Jian signed a document pledging 'support the leadership of the Communist Party of China' and to uphold 'Mao Zedong thought and Marxism-Leninism' in January 2024 before her boyfriend's encounter in Detroit.
Both were charged with conspiring to smuggle a potentially dangerous fungal pathogen into the US, while Liu remains at large with a warrant out for his arrest.
Fusarium graminearum already exists in the US, and while it's responsible for an estimated loss of $200-400 million worth of US agriculture per year, Rutgers University molecular biologist Dr. Richard Ebright told The Post it could pose a critical risk to US food supplies if it were modified for resistance or virulence.
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