A Chinese couple has been accused of attempting to smuggle a highly toxic fungus into the United States – an organism considered potentially devastating to American agriculture, as it attacks barley, corn, and wheat plants. The FBI recently arrested Jian Yunqing, a microbiology researcher working at the University of Michigan, in connection with the alleged smuggling of Fusarium graminearum, a fungus identified in scientific literature, as a potential agroterrorism agent.
Jian’s partner, Liu Zunyong, is also involved in the case. He was stopped more than a year earlier, at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, while attempting to enter the country with suspicious biological materials concealed in packages. According to U.S. federal authorities, Liu’s objective was to bring the fungus into the United States so it could be studied in a laboratory at the University of Michigan where Jian worked – circumventing official safety protocols for the transport of high-risk biological agents. At the time of the incident, Liu was denied entry and returned to China.
However, the investigation continued, uncovering elements that alarmed U.S. authorities. Investigators found that Liu also conducts research on Fusarium graminearum at a Chinese university, suggesting a pattern of ongoing interest in the pathogen. According to the complaint Jian had previously conducted government-funded research in China on the very same pathogen – but more worrying for U.S. authorities were the statements of loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party reportedly discovered on her phone. These findings have intensified concerns about the couple’s motives and whether their actions were part of a broader state-influenced operation.
Indeed, U.S. federal authorities are now considering the possibility that this may have been a case of agroterrorism – a deliberate act aimed at undermining a key sector of the U.S. economy. Agriculture contributed over $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023 and employs more than 10 percent of the national workforce. Beyond the economic damage, a targeted attack on crops and food systems through biological agents like Fusarium graminearum could have catastrophic consequences in terms of food security and public health.
While this episode may initially seem like an isolated incident, it has taken place against a backdrop of increasing geopolitical tensions, defined by the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the United States and China. Far from being an anomaly, it is part of a growing pattern of U.S. actions directed at Chinese nationals, particularly those working in sensitive sectors. What makes such cases especially troubling is that they signal an expansion of the strategic rivalry between the two superpowers beyond the expected economic and trade arenas, deep into the realms of scientific research, academia, and technological development. The fact that universities, which should aspire to be spaces of open exchange and international cooperation, are becoming more explicitly battlegrounds for suspicion and control among the superpowers, underscores the deepening mistrust and securitization of knowledge that is reshaping the global order.
With Donald Trump back in the White House, observers expected that the U.S. administration’s stance toward China would take on even more confrontational and unpredictable dimensions, particularly in the economic realm. We saw it clearly during his “Liberation Day” speech, when Trump announced the imposition of new tariffs on all countries the United States had a trade deficit with. Successive rounds of retaliation saw the U.S. tariff rates on Chinese imports reach an astonishing 145 percent.
President Xi Jinping responded by imposing equivalent tariffs on U.S. imports. In this tit-for-tat economic battle, it was ultimately Trump who apparently partially backtracked first, suspending some of the tariffs and signaling a willingness to negotiate a difficult bilateral trade agreement with Beijing. At home, this move has reinforced the now-popular criticism encapsulated in the acronym TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – used by critics and analysts to describe the president’s pattern of making bold threats followed by strategic retreat when faced with political or market resistance.
Seeing as Trump’s economic strategy toward China has produced ambiguous results, his administration has taken a much more aggressive stance on domestic security, particularly when it comes to monitoring and restricting Chinese nationals studying or working in the United States – especially in fields deemed “strategic” to national interests, such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
This context makes the case of Jian and Liu far more than a legal matter. It symbolizes the shift toward a deliberate effort to limit Chinese presence and influence within U.S. scientific and technological research institutions. In fact, just a few days before Jian’s arrest, the Trump administration publicly announced plans to revoke the visas of Chinese students in the United States – including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or engaged in sensitive areas of study. For years, Chinese nationals represented the largest group of international students at U.S. universities. And while that dominance has been shrinking – partly due to pandemic-era travel restrictions and the steady deterioration of bilateral relations – there were nearly 280,000 Chinese students in the United States as of the previous academic year.
In a further escalation, the Trump administration instructed U.S. embassies around the world to halt new student visa appointments, as part of a broader plan to expand surveillance over visa applicants. These developments have provoked concern and frustration among students, universities, and human rights groups.
Beyond the immediate impact on international students – particularly those from China, who are increasingly caught in the crossfire of geopolitical rivalry – Trump’s stance seems to overlook a crucial dimension of international education: its role in advancing U.S. cultural influence and soft power. For decades, American universities have served not only as centers of excellence but also as powerful tools of diplomacy, shaping generations of foreign leaders and professionals who carry with them an understanding of and often a connection to the U.S. system. By curtailing academic exchanges in the name of national security, the United States risks weakening one of its most powerful tools of long-term global influence – its higher education system – while inadvertently driving talented minds toward rival nations, as evidenced by increasing efforts from the EU and several Asian countries to attract international students and researchers.
This is, arguably, the most worrisome consequence of the current trajectory. As well as being geopolitical rivals, the United States and China are leaders of global scientific research. The rising climate of mutual distrust, restrictive policies, and ideological polarization is stifling international academic collaboration and could also slow the global pace of innovation while raising its costs. At a time when global challenges are accelerating– climate change, artificial intelligence, and conflicts – the breakdown of trust and openness between two of the world’s scientific superpowers could have far-reaching and lasting consequences. The risk, increasingly real, is that fear and suspicion will override knowledge-sharing and cooperation, undermining progress on problems that no nation can solve alone.
