‘Very Strange’: Chinese Scientist Tried Sneaking Crop-Infecting Fungus Into US Lab Inside A Book

Last Updated:November 13, 2025, 10:39 IST

In a letter to the court, Yunqing Jian apologised and said she had been under pressure to generate results.

According to investigators, Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu wanted to continue working on the fungus without the mandatory federal permits. (AI Generated Image)

A Chinese researcher who attempted to smuggle a crop-infecting fungus into the United States by hiding biological samples inside a book pleaded guilty in Michigan but will serve no further jail time beyond the five months already spent in custody. Yunqing Jian, 33, a former temporary researcher at the University of Michigan, admitted that she had asked a colleague in China to secretly mail samples of Fusarium graminearum- a fungus capable of devastating wheat, barley, maize and rice- to her US lab in 2024. The package was intercepted by federal agents.

The fungus was at the centre of a wider scheme prosecutors say Yunqing Jian carried out with her boyfriend Zunyong Liu who was separately caught at a Detroit airport carrying small samples of the same pathogen.

A Fungus That Could Damage US Crops

According to investigators, Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu wanted to continue working on the fungus without the mandatory federal permits required to handle it in the United States. Fusarium graminearum can destroy major food crops and is strictly regulated. Assistant US Attorney Michael Martin told the court that the unapproved research carried the potential for “devastating harm," although he acknowledged that prosecutors had found no evidence of malicious intent.

“I don’t have evidence she had evil intent," Michael Martin said, adding, “but I don’t have evidence she was doing this for the betterment of mankind either."

A plant biologist who reviewed the materials for Yunqing Jian’s defence, Roger Innes of Indiana University, said the samples posed no realistic risk to US agriculture and suggested Zunyong Liu may simply have wanted access to a specialised microscope at the Michigan lab.

Court Calls It ‘A Very Strange Case’

Yunqing Jian appeared in court, where US District Judge Susan DeClercq described the matter as “a very strange case" involving an otherwise “incredibly accomplished researcher." Prosecutors had sought a two-year prison term, far above the guideline maximum of six months. But the judge sentenced Yunqing Jian to five months- time served- clearing the way for her immediate release and deportation.

In a letter to the court, Yunqing Jian apologised and said she had been under pressure to generate results.

“The research was not to harm anyone," she wrote, “but instead to find ways to protect crops from disease." A conspiracy charge was dropped in exchange for her guilty plea to smuggling and making false statements.

News world ‘Very Strange’: Chinese Scientist Tried Sneaking Crop-Infecting Fungus Into US Lab Inside A Book

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