Gordon Chang says that the recent interdiction of the hazardous bio-thingie, Fusarium graminearum, which two Chinese nationals recently tried to smuggle into the country, is further evidence that Chinese Communist Party is planning a biological attack on the United States. At any rate, something bad (Fox News, June 7, 2025).
“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.
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.”
Some specialists stress that as pathogens go, Fusarium graminearum is not the worst in the world. “Compared to some other things, I don’t think the risk is as high,” says Gary Bergstrom, a professor of plant pathology. “It’s not zero, but it certainly wouldn’t be as much concern as the accidental or otherwise introduction of some serious diseases that we don’t have now.”
So “only” fair-to-middling level of risk, not immediate-death-of-all-humanity level of risk. Anyway, what were Jian and Liu doing with the Fusarium graminearum? And where did they get it? Who supplied them with it and with what directive?
Chang says that we may lose the war that China is waging against us “even though we’re the far stronger nation, because we are not defending ourselves with the vigor and determination that is necessary.”
Fox News also reviews other recent examples of hostile activity by Chinese nationals: the breach of Naval air station by Chinese nationals, the attempted theft of trade secrets by a Chinese national, the photographing of a joint American and Taiwanese training exercise at Camp Grayling by Chinese nationals, the use of a drone by a Chinese national to spy on naval bases in Norfolk, Virginia.
A direct threat
FBI Director Kash Patel has said that the attempt by Jian and Liu to smuggle a toxic fungus into the country (again) “is a sobering reminder that the Chinese Communist Party continues to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate our institutions and target our food supply, an act that could cripple our economy and endanger American lives. Smuggling a known agroterrorism agent into the U.S. is not just a violation of law, it’s a direct threat to national security.”
The incident reinforces James Roth’s conclusion that a federal ban on Chinese student visas should be “total, not merely ‘aggressive.’ ”
Is there any practicable way to make the ban selective rather than total while still effectively shutting down avenues of assault? Many Chinese nationals who want to study in the United States or immigrate to the U.S. are probably not and probably won’t become spies for the People’s Republic China, even though Chinese law obliges them to spy if the Chinese Communist Party should require it. Many Chinese want to escape the CCP dictatorship and some protest against their government when they are overseas.
The problem is that only a few need to be effective spies or saboteurs in order to cause lots of trouble. And the Chinese Communist Party, relentless, is not a minor or marginal enemy of the U.S. and of many other countries. It’s at the top of the list.
Also see:
Newsweek: “Is China Sneaking Military Personnel into the U.S. Via Border?” (June 16, 2023)
“If you’re a bad guy that wants to infiltrate operatives into the U.S.A., the southern border is a pretty easy way to do it.”
NBC News: “Ex-top aide to N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul was a secret Chinese agent, prosecutors say” (September 3, 2024)
StoptheCCP.org: “A Thousand Points of Chinese Espionage”
