Officials say newly intensified counterintelligence efforts have uncovered espionage cases and raised questions about past handling of Chinese-linked biological laboratories in California and Nevada.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Federal officials and lawmakers are raising renewed national security concerns over alleged illicit biological laboratories on U.S. soil linked to Chinese nationals, as FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau has reversed course from the Biden era and significantly expanded its counterintelligence focus on the Chinese Communist Party.
Patel said Friday that the FBI has resumed an aggressive posture toward China and its ruling party, a strategy he said had been sidelined under the prior administration, according to a report by Just the News. He said the renewed approach has already led to a 40 percent increase in Chinese espionage-related arrests during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
“This FBI, under this leadership, has prioritized the threat against it by the CCP against us, and we’ve taken swift action,” Patel said during remarks focused on China’s national security threat and the bureau’s counterintelligence operations.
Patel said the FBI, working alongside the Justice Department, has reexamined what he described as a “dynamic threat landscape,” including criminal activity tied to the CCP. “What we did in the last year with President Trump and the attorney general and the Department of Justice is reprioritize our dynamic threat landscape, going after and disrupting and looking after the criminal activity from the CCP,” he said.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., echoed those concerns, warning that alleged illicit biolabs connected to Chinese nationals could represent a serious vulnerability. Speaking on the Just the News Not Noise television program, Crawford referenced a lab discovered in California in 2023 and another raided by authorities near Las Vegas in 2026.
One of the Nevada locations, Crawford noted, was inside a vacation rental property near a major metropolitan area. “Why would you have some illicit labs set up in an Airbnb, except for, maybe, you’re trying to create some sort of, you know, patient zero scenario,” he said, adding that the situation raised the specter of a future epidemic.
Crawford said the handling of potentially dangerous pathogens appeared careless at best. He also pointed to the lab’s proximity to what he described as a “high-value” U.S. military installation, calling the combination of civilian exposure and defense assets deeply concerning.
“This requires us to double down on our CI posture,” Crawford said, referring to counterintelligence. He added that China has exploited U.S. immigration and academic systems for decades, allowing individuals with CCP ties to gain access to sensitive areas and institutions.
Crawford criticized U.S. universities for what he described as prioritizing tuition revenue over national security by enrolling large numbers of Chinese students in advanced science and technology programs. “They’re not here to study the arts or literature,” he said. “They’re here to gain hard-tech degrees: engineering, physics, biochemistry.”
According to reporting by Just the News, both the California and Nevada labs are tied to a Chinese national currently awaiting trial on charges including fraud, false statements, and adulteration of medical devices. The outlet has also reported that at least 20 Chinese scientists working in U.S. academic and research institutions may have links to the CCP, the People’s Liberation Army, or Chinese technology-transfer programs, based on findings from the American Accountability Foundation and documented in additional reporting.
National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said the labs appeared to have operated with little oversight. “When you do research like this, potentially in an environment where there’s very little biosecurity, you’re posing hazards to everyone around you,” he told Just the News. “These were completely flying under the radar screen.”
Patel also questioned whether the Biden-era FBI misled the public about earlier discoveries. He said a 2023 incident in Reedley, California, involving an illegal lab was initially dismissed as having no CCP connection. “When we discovered that, we took swift action to course correct the intelligence,” Patel said, adding that the FBI is awaiting lab results from the Nevada case and will release findings publicly.
The House Select Committee on the CCP previously highlighted links between the Reedley lab and Chinese government entities in a 2023 report, which also criticized federal oversight failures and called the incident a potential national security risk.
Patel blamed the prior administration’s decision to shut down the FBI’s China Initiative, a counterintelligence program focused on Chinese threats in academia, saying the move allowed CCP-linked activity to expand. “We don’t necessarily need a new initiative,” Patel said. “We just need the FBI all in against the CCP.”
The FBI director also cited arrests involving Chinese students at the University of Michigan accused of smuggling biohazardous materials into the United States. The Justice Department has detailed those cases in multiple announcements, including charges related to the illegal importation of Fusarium graminearum, a fungus classified in scientific literature as a potential agroterrorism weapon.
Bhattacharya said the administration has moved to tighten oversight of federally funded research, including restricting foreign subawards, noting that NIH announced new transparency requirements in a May notice.
“We need safeguards that make sure that the American investments don’t result in threats and harms to America,” Bhattacharya said, adding that past research partnerships with China lacked sufficient protections.
While officials said the full intent behind the alleged biolabs remains under investigation, both Patel and Crawford said the cases underscore the need for sustained vigilance, stronger counterintelligence measures, and closer scrutiny of foreign-linked research activities inside the United States.
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