The recent arrests of two Chinese nationals in Michigan have alarmed experts and renewed fears of bioterrorism. Some are warning that this incident could be a sign of something even worse than the COVID-19 pandemic. Gordon Chang, an expert on China and author of The Coming Collapse of China, said in an interview with Fox News, “We are going to get hit really hard. Not just with COVID, not just with fentanyl, but perhaps with something worse.”
What Happened in Michigan
In Michigan, federal authorities arrested Yunqing Jian and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu. They are accused of smuggling Fusarium graminearum, a deadly fungus that attacks crops like wheat, barley, maize, and rice. The Justice Department said this fungus causes “billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.” It can also make people sick, causing vomiting, liver damage, and even reproductive problems in both humans and livestock.
The arrests were made after a two-year investigation. Baggies of the dangerous fungus were seized by Border Patrol. Jian, who was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, had research funded in part by the Chinese government. Gordon Chang said, “This couple should be sent to Guantánamo. This Chinese government has declared a ‘People’s War’ on us.”
A “People’s War” is a military and political strategy created by Mao Zedong. It calls for a long campaign to wear down the enemy. Chang believes that China’s current actions are part of this strategy. “What they’re doing with their strident anti-Americanism is creating a justification to strike our country,” Chang said.
A Pattern of Infiltration and Espionage
The incident in Michigan is not the only example of Chinese nationals carrying out suspicious activities in the U.S. In 2020, two Chinese graduate students from the University of Michigan were caught trespassing at a Navy base in Key West, Florida. They pleaded guilty to charges after taking photos of military installations.
In 2021, Charles Lieber, who worked with China’s Wuhan University of Technology, was found guilty of hiding income and failing to report links to China’s Thousand Talents Program. The FBI says this program “incentivizes its members to steal foreign technologies.”
In 2022, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national and former Illinois Institute of Technology student, was convicted of spying for Chinese intelligence. He tried to gather information about American defense contractors. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
More recently, in 2024, five Chinese nationals at the University of Michigan were charged with photographing a joint U.S. and Taiwanese training exercise at Camp Grayling. Another Chinese national, Fengyun Shi, was caught using a drone to photograph naval bases in Virginia. He was sentenced to six months in jail and deported.
What is Bioterrorism?
Bioterrorism is the use of biological agents like viruses or bacteria to cause illness and death. Unlike conventional attacks, bioterrorism can be harder to detect and contain. In the past, there have been examples like the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S. and the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo.
But it can also mean the mass deployment of a damaging fungi to affect wheat or corn, or any that might affect the economics of feeding 330 million Americans, as was the contraband from the recent arrests.
A January 2025 report by the American Council on Science and Health revealed how easy it might be for someone to recreate deadly viruses. During a test run, MIT graduate students were able to order DNA fragments of the 1918 Spanish flu virus from 36 of 38 suppliers. “They were able to employ standard biochemical techniques to create the deadly virus,” said MIT Professor Kevin Esvelt.
A Growing Concern for National Security
Gordon Chang believes that the Michigan arrests are a warning that China is willing to use any means necessary to harm the U.S. He said, “We’re Americans, so we think we’re entitled to ignore the propaganda of hostile regimes. But for a communist party, a ‘People’s War’ has great resonance.”
Other experts agree that bioterrorism is becoming a more serious concern. Matt Pottinger, a former deputy national security adviser, co-authored a Washington Post article about this. Pottinger and his co-authors wrote, “Biological surveillance, detection and attribution must become a core national security function, and not merely a public health activity.”
They want Congress to fund a new intelligence discipline called “biological intelligence,” or BIOINT. This would help the U.S. and its allies find and stop new biological threats before they spread.
Pottinger and others also warn that technology is making it easier to create biological weapons. “Breakthroughs in gene-editing technology and artificial intelligence have made the manipulation and production of deadly viruses and bacteria easier than ever,” they wrote.
Despite the warnings, some experts believe that fears of a biological attack may be overstated. The University of Maryland’s START program studied 1,509 terrorism-related incidents in the U.S. between 2023 and 2024. Most involved firearms, explosives, or incendiary devices. Only 2.7 percent involved chemical agents, and none were biological.
Still, the fentanyl crisis shows how chemical know-how can be used to harm Americans. Jason Pack, a former FBI special agent, said, “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.”
Gordon Chang’s solution is direct. “The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China,” he told Fox News. “And I know people think that’s drastic, but we are being overwhelmed.”
He warned that ignoring the threat could have disastrous results. “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,” he said.
As the world learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, a new biological threat could cause panic and economic damage. While experts disagree on how likely a bioterror attack is, they agree that the stakes are too high to ignore. The arrests in Michigan may be a wake-up call that the U.S. cannot afford to hit the snooze button on.