The Deadly FUNGUS Chinese "Scholars" Have Snuck into the MIDWEST

I have a truly interesting story for you today. Even with everything that's been happening between Trump and Elon, I would say that this is still the story of the week. On Tuesday, June the 3rd, federal agents arrested a Chinese researcher who was working over at the University of Michigan. And the reason for the arrest of this Chinese scholar was because she was part of a scheme to smuggle in a biological pathogen into the United States. Specifically, her and her boyfriend were trying to smuggle in a type of fungus that can be used to target food crops right here in America. Things like wheat, barley, and rice. And this particular fungus would have the effect of just absolutely decimating these crops. In fact, the feds, they characterized this whole plot as a form of agricultural terrorism. And furthermore, after we actually looked into it, it turns out that this latest incident wasn't even the couple's first time, as they've actually smuggled in viral pathogens like this on several other occasions as well. And now that the FBI's indictment has been made public because it was unsealed in federal court. In fact, you can see it up on your screen for yourself. Let's go through the details of all of it together because the details are truly wild. And as always, if you appreciate content like this, do take a moment to smash that like button. I know you're saying to yourself, "Roman, I haven't even watched the video yet. How do I know whether I'm going to like it?" I promise you, you're going to like it. So, smash that like button as well as that subscribe button if you haven't already. And then, let's begin. So, to start with, let me briefly introduce to you the characters in this particular story. There's two of them. Firstly, you have Miss Yunqing Jian. And just because her name is a little hard to pronounce, moving forward, I'll just call her Jane. She's a 33-year-old citizen of China who graduated with a doctorate degree in plant pathogens from Jer Jang University. She then transferred over to the University of Michigan where she's been working as a researcher in the microbiology lab that they have on campus. Then you also have Mr. Zun Yong Leo. That's her 34 yearear-old boyfriend. Now Mr. Leo, he's also a researcher of plant-based pathogens. and him and his girlfriend have actually worked together in the past in multiple different laboratories including one in Texas as well as that one in Michigan and they even co-authored several academic papers together which is kind of sweet if you think about it your boyfriend girlfriend but you also study deadly pathogens together it's quite sweet and so here's what happened back in March of 2024 in March of last year the boyfriend who was in China applied for a tourist visa application in order to be able to come to the United States that particular visa application. It asked the following question. Quote, "Do you seek to engage in espionage, sabotage, export control violations, or any other illegal activity while in the United States?" The boyfriend obviously checked off no on the form, and subsequently, his visa application was approved by the officials. Then 4 months later, he actually flew into the US and arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport sometime at the end of July 2024. However, it appears that the boyfriend was not creative enough with how he was trying to smuggle in this particular fungus. That's because during the inspection process at that airport, the customs and border patrol officers, they found a hidden note that was written in Chinese, a round piece of filter paper, as well as four little baggies that were filled with clumps of reddish plant material. You can see the photos of those items up on your screen. And according to the unsealed court documents, the boyfriend, he initially lied when he was asked about what those items actually were. But then eventually the truth came out. Here's what the court document said. Quote, Leo initially stated that he did not know what the materials were and that someone must have put them into his bag. When asked why someone would put those materials into his bag, Leo stated that he did not know and that maybe he had accidentally put the materials there. After further questioning, Leo acknowledged that the materials were different strains of the pathogen Facerian grammanum. Now, both myself and a researcher looked into it and ferium grammanum, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, is a very dangerous type of fungus. It causes crops like wheat, barley, and rice to develop a disease known as facerium headblank. And that disease, it does two things. It can ruin the grain by making it just shrivel up and die. But then also it can have the effect of producing toxins. Meaning that both the humans and the animals who eat the infected grain can actually get poisoned by doing so. It's an extremely nasty fungus that can cause devastating health effects. Well, both economically, but also to our nation's food security by making our grains in the Midwest wither and die. And what's perhaps most interesting is that this fungus is not only available in China, which raises the question of why they needed to smuggle it in rather than just find it here in the US and cultivate it that way. Regardless of that odd discrepancy, which we'll return to later, when this young man was actually pressed about what his intentions were with this fungus here in the US, well, here's what he said. Quote, Leo stated that he planned to clone the different strains of fuserium grammanum contained on the filter paper and make more samples if the experiments on the reddish plant material failed. Leo stated that he intentionally hid the samples in his backpack because he knew there were restrictions on the importation of the materials. Leo confirmed that he had intentionally put the samples in a watt of tissues so that Customs and Border Protection officers would be less likely to find and confiscate them and he could continue his research in the United States. And then in terms of where specifically he would be conducting this illicit research, he admitted that it would be done over at the molecular plant microbe interaction laboratory located inside the biological sciences building on the University of Michigan campus. Here's what the court document says. Quote, Leo confirmed that this was the same laboratory where his girlfriend Jane also conducts research on the genus faceria. Leo stated that while he was in the United States, he would have free access to the laboratory at the University of Michigan on some days and that other days his girlfriend would give him access to the laboratory to conduct his research. Essentially, this young man completely folded under the pressure and spilled all the beans. Now, at this point in the story, if you're being generous, you might go ahead and give the benefit of the doubt to this particular young man and assume that he was just a well-intentioned, ambitious researcher, a scientist who was willing to bend the rules a little bit in order to be able to study a certain fungus in one of the best labs in the whole world. However, a question naturally arises from that, which is why does he need to import this fungus from China? Because if his girlfriend is already in this Michigan lab studying this exact type of fungus, then she has that fungus in the lab. Nobody needs to sneak that fungus across the border. It's already in the lab being studied. But at least officially, that's not true because this specific type of fungus that he was bringing in is actually a lot more dangerous than what was already officially being studied in the Michigan lab. And here's why. The USDA permits that laboratory over at the University of Michigan to study fuserium oxporum. However, what the boyfriend was bringing in from China was fuserium grammanum, something that the USDA specifically does not allow that particular lab to study. Now, both are a type of fungus that can kill plants, but one is a lot more dangerous than the other. For serarium oxisporum, it basically infects the roots of the plant and clogs up the plant's water transport system. This makes the plant wilt and die even if there's enough water in the soil. It's basically like a plant being slowly choked from the inside. However, viserium grammanum works differently. It actually infects the flowers and the heads of the plant causing something known as head blight. The grains shrivel up and this is the important part. The grains also get contaminated with dangerous toxins. Because unlike the oxporum, the facerium gramurum that was being snuck in from China, it produces dangerous micotoxins that actually contaminate the grains and do harm to both the humans and the animals who wind up eating them. That's the big difference between the two. Both of them kill the plant, but one also produces dangerous toxins to those who eat it. All right, just to pause here for a super quick moment. I'd like to introduce our sponsor and my own personal gold dealer, American Hartford Gold. Now, as soon as the latest round of tariffs hit, almost immediately, the stock market hit some serious waves. We could say, it became super turbulent, very volatile. And of course, these conditions don't just affect Wall Street. They affect all of us with our investments and our retirement accounts. That's why I want to introduce a company that I trust and I use myself to help secure my own savings, American Hartford Gold. They specialize in helping Americans move their assets into something tangible, something you can actually hold. Physical gold and physical silver. Two precious metals that help me sleep better at night, knowing that I have a hedge against all those brilliant decisions being made over in Washington. Now, they have an A+ rating with a Better Business Bureau. They have thousands of five-star reviews, and they make the whole buying process super simple. Your medals can be shipped directly to your doorstep or you can transfer your current retirement account to a tax advantaged gold IRA. And the best part is that right now American Hartford Gold is offering an exclusive buy one get one deal for my viewers. When you call them and mention my name, Roman, for every 1 oz of gold that you purchase, you can get 1 ounce of free silver. And so take advantage of this special offer. Either call 8662422352 or simply text Roman to 65532. That's again 866242-22352 or text Roman to 65532. I'll also throw their information. It'll be down in the description box below. And so this is where things wind up taking a darker turn in this particular story because the Customs and Border Protection officers at the airport, they inspected the electronics that the boyfriend had on him at the time, which included two Apple iPhones as well as a MacBook. Now, it's unclear whether they actually confiscated those electronics or just made copies of the files, but regardless, they did get access to all the files. They then went ahead and revoked that boyfriend's visa, put him on a plane, and sent him right back to China. Then the feds went back and obtained a search warrant to be able to look through the data on the boyfriend's electronic devices. And what they found probably surprised even them. Now, I read through the court documents myself, and there were four particular things that were interesting that stuck out to me in terms of what the feds found on the boyfriend's electronics. The first was that one of the iPhones belonging to the boyfriend had an article downloaded on it titled, quote, "Plant pathogen warfare under changing climate conditions." Now, I looked up that article. You can find it online. In fact, you can see it up on your screen right now. And what it basically discusses is how fungi like facerium grammanum are an example of a destructive disease that can be used against crops. So not great. The second thing of interest that the feds found on the boyfriend's phone were text message exchanges between him and his girlfriend indicating that she had also previously smuggled biological material into the United States. Specifically, here's a text message exchange that took place in August of 2022, which was roughly 2 years before this incident at the airport. And I will mention that the original text messages were in Chinese, but they were then translated and then put into the court documents. And what I'm reading to you is the translation of the original Chinese. You need to pick up your luggage when you go through customs. That is to say, in San Francisco. Yes. And then go through security again. So, be careful. Okay. Teacher Leang's seeds must be placed well. Where to put it? I only have one pair of shoes. The insole cannot be pulled off. Did you bring just one pair of shoes? Three pair. Wear one pair. Where did the seeds get put? In the tube. I put them in my martin boots. In a small bag, the Ziploc bag. Very small. That's good. Just put it in your shoes. I stuffed them in the shoes. And indeed, the feds looked into it and they found that according to the official travel records with the Customs and Border Protection Agency one day after that text conversation took place, Miss Jane actually did arrive by airplane into the United States, meaning that they were smuggling this stuff since at least 2022. Then you had another text message thread showing that this pair was already secretly experimenting with this exact fungus in that Michigan lab and they were worried about the head professor at that lab finding out. Here is a text thread showing that. And mind you, this text thread was actually dated May 1st, 2024, which was roughly 2 months before the boyfriend was intercepted at the airport. And here's how that text exchange went. I just went down to help with your plans. Fortunately, I went. Did the boss and her team inspect it? Met them on patrol? Yes. All right. That's such a coincidence. Your cell death phenotype plants were seen by the principal investigator. What did you say? She asked me what it was. I said it was Zunyong's leftover plant. She said it has a strong phenotype. Your label clearly states your name. What should I do then? She didn't say anything else, did she? I usually put it on the top shelf. I forgot this time and put it below. She asked me what this phenotype was. I said it should be aector. There's nothing I can do. It really pushed me to the brink of despair. She said, "What is the aector?" Was she angry? I said it was ferium. No. She also asked me if you had detected before. She thought it was ferum oxporum. I didn't dare to tell her it was ferum gramminurum. Fortunately, I didn't say it was FG. that's even more serious. And so that thread showed us several things that for one, they already had this deadly fungus in that lab. They were experimenting with it. And they clearly understood that this was something that they shouldn't be doing. Evidenced by the clear fact that they were worried that the chief of that particular laboratory would find out and they would get in trouble. Then you get to the final set of text messages that were uncovered. These are the ones which reveal the fact that the girlfriend was coordinating with the boyfriend to receive this latest batch of seats, the ones that were caught and intercepted at the airport at the end of July 2024. And so 3 weeks prior to the boyfriend getting caught, the two had this conversation by text. I'll go get the seeds as soon as possible. I'm already able to receive them. However, the very next day, the two appear to have an argument. If you're busy, don't come. Find someone else to receive the seeds for you. If you want to receive the seeds, you can. If you don't, then throw them away. Then find someone else to throw it away for you. I'm not obligated to throw it away for you. You then fast forward a little bit and according to the text message thread, just days before the incident at the airport, the following exchange took place between the two love birds. It's a pity that I still have to work for you. Once this is done, everything else will be easy. My siblings are not usable yet. It's okay. A batch just passed. The new one is not good yet. First, let's test the expression. Are centrifuges easy to use now? Not as useful as before, but it can be used. The expression I mentioned this time is okay. DNA proposed is not as useful as before. Well enough, but the quantity is not that big. Maybe the centrifuge is not working well. Maybe you can do the same as before. That's not necessarily true. Did you receive the peptides? The courier showed that it had been delivered on Thursday. And so in sum total, these text messages were, you can say, fairly damning. They showed evidence of a long-term coordinated effort between these two Chinese national individuals to illegally import dangerous pathogens into the United States. Now, the boyfriend, he got lucky. His fungus, his MacBook, and his iPhones were seized at the airport, but he himself was deported. His visa was canceled, and he was sent back to China. The girlfriend, on the other hand, was less lucky. After the feds obtained their warrant and were able to find all this incriminating evidence on both the computer and the phone, the feds traveled over to Michigan to question her at the laboratory. And here's how that played out. Quote, "On February 5th, 2025, FBI special agents interviewed Jane at the MPMI laboratory. During the interview, Jane identified herself as Leo's girlfriend. When asked about the purpose of Leo's travels to the United States in July of 2024, Jane stated that Leo was traveling to visit her for summer vacation. Jane stated that Leo is a faculty member at Jerj Jang University and studies for Serium Gramman. Jane denied knowing that Leo was planning to study in the United States or bring samples of biological materials into the United States. Jane claimed to have first learned about the smuggling after Leo was caught by Customs and Border Protection. Jane repeated that she was 100% sure. I didn't know anything about it until this thing happened. Jane also denied knowing what type of samples Leo was bringing to the United States and denied assisting Leo's research on Facerium Ganero. Now, just to pause here for a quick moment, judging by her answers, it appears that Miss Jane wasn't aware that the feds had gained access to their text messages, which actually became even more obvious when the FBI agents and Miss Jane had the following exchange as documented in the court files. I don't study on fuserium. How would this happen? Send me this for what? I don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out. Was there fuserium grammar in the lab? I don't think so. I don't think so. We don't study on this here. So that's not going to be anywhere in the lab. Yes. I don't think there's going to be any grammar. Are you sure? From my understanding and knowledge, I don't think we have it. But from my information, there is none. I'm going to ask you point blank and I need you to be honest. Are you assisting his research on ferium gramurum in this lab? No. Have you ever done that? In China, we did that in this lab here. Facerarium gmanum. No ferium grimmanum 100% no. Now obviously what she was saying here during that interview was not squaring with what was shown in the text messages obtained from the boyfriend's phone. And speaking of text messages, when the feds arrived there, they already had a search warrant to take Miss Jane's phone as well. However, before they were able to take her phone, she actually deleted several conversations on that phone. Here's how that all played out. Quote, "During the interview, agents observed that Jane was in possession of a cellular telephone. At the end of the interview, an FBI agent asked Jane to provide her telephone. Jane did not provide the telephone and instead began manipulating the telephone, at which point agents seized it from her possession, pursuant to a federal search warrant. Law enforcement performed a digital forensic analysis on Jane's cellular telephone and discovered that one WhatsApp conversation had been recently deleted. Additionally, WeChat conversation history between Leo and Jane that over overlapped in time with Leo's July 2024 smuggling at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport were able to be located forensically on Jane's phone. Based on my training and experience, the agent writes, "This can happen if messages are deleted and the cash wiped." Now, unfortunately for Miss Jane, while she was able to delete those WhatsApp and WeChat messages, there were many other things on that particular phone that appeared to be quite incriminating. The first was a pledge signed by her to support the Chinese Communist Party. Specifically, this was an annual work assessment form for staff members of Gerjang University, which contained the following statement. Quote, I adhere to the four basic principles. support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, resolutely implement the party's educational guidelines and policies, love education, care for students, unite colleagues, love the motherland, and care about national affairs. In my daily work in life, I conscientiously do a good job as an international student, conscientiously implement the rules and regulations of the school, and always remind myself to maintain the image of a Chinese person and not smear the motherland. And just for your general reference, the four basic principles that are mentioned in that particular pledge are as follows. One, uphold the socialist path. Two, uphold the people's democratic dictatorship. Three, upholding the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. And four, upholding Mao Dong thought and Marxism Leninism. And Miss Jang had signed that pledge in January of 2024. Now, I will mention that having a signed pledge to the Chinese Communist Party on your cell phone is not a good look. However, it is worth giving a bit more context here. While I'm not excusing that type of thing, it is worth mentioning that these types of pledges are pretty common in communist China. Specifically among like higher level professionals, the elites in pretty much every industry, academics, business leaders, high level entrepreneurs, movie stars, they all need to sign these types of pledges. pledges of allegiance to the CCP. It's just one of the ways that the Communist Party of China enforces control on the people and not signing that pledge is typically not really an option. And so the fact that Miss Jane signed this yearly communist pledge, it could be more of a symptom of where she came from rather than an indication of what she truly believes. But having said that, the other thing that the FBI was able to find on her phone can't really easily be explained away. That's because there was a text message thread between her and another individual where she gave extremely detailed instructions on how to prepare the fungus, place the fungus on filter paper, put the paper inside of little Ziploc bags, hide those bags inside the pages of a book, and then mail that book from China over to her home in Michigan. Here's specifically what the court document said about that. Quote, "The search of Jane's cellular telephone also revealed a conversation on WeChat between Jane and an individual named Shia Chen on or around January 15th, 2024." The messages revealed a request from Jane to Chen requesting that Chen send Jane some plasmids. Specifically, Jane requested Fuserium grama. Jane asked Chen to mail her some plasmids. Chen agreed to Jane's request, stating, "Okay, I'll send it to you." Jane gave detailed instructions through text and audio messages to Chen on the preparation and concealment of the materials. Specifically, Jane gave Chen a description of the materials that she was requesting and an associated photograph. Jane instructed Shannon how she should prepare the materials, including the steps required to prepare the filter paper, such as drawing circles on the paper, numbering it, and telling Jane what the numbers were for her reference. Jane went on to say that if there were issues, she would be able to cut out sections of the filter paper and redo the process herself. Jane provided her current home address in Ann Arbor, Michigan as the mailing address for the package. And indeed, this individual, they followed Jane's instructions to a team. They put the fungus on the paper. They put the paper in the ziplockc bags. They put the ziplockc bags in the pages of the book. They put the book in the package. and they mailed that package from China over to Ann Arbor, Michigan. But here's where it gets funny because that book, it was actually intercepted by Customs and Border Protection located in Kentucky. They opened the package, they inspected the book, they found the Ziploc bags with a filter paper inside of it, they took photos of it, and then they wound up destroying it. This took place in January of 2024. Then 6 months later in July of 2024, the boyfriend was caught at the airport trying to smuggle in seemingly the exact same thing that they tried to mail in that book, but failed. Which is exactly what appears to have happened here. They tried to mail the stuff in the book, failed, and then tried to sneak it into the airport, but then failed again. Except this time, it looks like Miss Jane is actually paying the price. As I mentioned at the very top of the episode, she is currently sitting in jail awaiting a hearing. And because she was deemed to be such a serious flight risk, she's being held without bond. Now, once her arrest was made, you had US attorney Jerome Gorgon, who was the one who was actually overseeing this investigation. He released the following statement. Quote, "The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals, including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party, are of the gravest national security concerns. These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a potential aggro terrorism weapon into the heartland of America where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme. Then likewise you had Mr. Cash Patel who is of course the new director of the FBI released the following statement about this same matter. Quote, "This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences, putting American lives and our economy at serious risk." Now, in terms of the next steps, Ms. Jane will have her day in court. At the moment, she is facing a litany of charges, including the following: conspiracy to commit offense against the United States, smuggling, making false statements to a federal officer, as well as visa fraud. If found guilty, she faces upwards of 25 plus years behind bars. However, as I mentioned earlier, her boyfriend is incredibly lucky because his visa was revoked right there at the airport and he was sent back home. He's actually pretty much in the clear. China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. And so, good luck getting that guy to come here and face justice for his role in the scheme. He is likely sitting back home in China, not worried about having to face any jail time himself, although he might be worried about his girlfriend. And so, that is the story of how these two Chinese love birds tried to import a deadly aggropathogen into the United States and got caught. Now, in terms of what this actually means, I'd love to know your thoughts, because one way to look at all of this, and this is the way I was kind of seeming to look at it when I was reading the indictment, is that these two might have really just been two overzealous researchers who are willing to bend the rules, cut corners to conduct scientific research. I mean, maybe that's a naive view of things, but maybe they really were just hardcore scientists looking to do science. However, given the Chinese Communist Party connection in all this and the fact that there were many players involved, this all might have been part of a larger plot. A plot to attack the grain crops right here in the Midwest, which would be devastating if all of a sudden this particular fungus was released at scale at the rice, the barley, and the wheat that's grown in America's heartland. I mean, that would be a major blow both economically, but also in terms of food security. And so, what do you think? Is this just a case of two overzealous scientists looking to make a name for themselves? Or perhaps sleeper agents of the CCP looking to destroy America from within? And also another train of thought, given the fact that all or almost all Chinese researchers who work abroad or study abroad have to sign loyalty pledges to the Chinese Communist Party, do you think that it's time that we as a country reconsider whether they should even be here? I mean, if you think about it, if during the Cold War, the US was letting in all these different Soviet scientists into our universities and schools to do research, well, that would never happen. People back then were a lot more clear on the dangers of communism. However, nowadays, maybe because of the open trade, Americans have sort of forgotten that China is a communist rule dictatorship which is willing to do literally anything to take down America. And so, is letting scientists from that country come to the US to do research a good idea? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I'd love to know your thoughts because I'm I have my very strong opinions on that on this matter, but they're just my opinions. And this show is called Facts Matter, so my opinions don't really matter, but your opinions do. And so, leave them in the comments section below. I'd love to read them and I'm sure everybody watching this episode would love to read them as well. And then also, if you'd like to get deeper into the story, I will throw several research links, including the full indictment paperwork that was released uh a few days ago, I'll throw the links to those into the description box below if you want to dig deeper into the weeds. And then lastly, if you haven't already, please do smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this video can reach ever more people via the YouTube algorithm. And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. Stay informed and most importantly, stay free.