Poison in His Daily Tea? Chinese Student Accused of Poisoning Colleague Arrested Fleeing at LAX

A graduate student who drank tea every day suddenly began suffering numb fingers and weak legs. He never imagined the answer would be poison in the water inside his coffee maker. Even more disturbing, the person accused of putting it there was a Chinese student who sat across from him every day. The case happened at the University of Wyoming. The victim, KT, was a high-achieving graduate student from Vietnam. His advisor described him as highly accomplished. KT developed a method that uses bacteria to deliver RNA into human cells. The federally funded research targets cancer, neurological diseases and genetic disorders. Soon after attending a conference in August 2006, KT became extremely fatigued and could not sleep. A young man who had once been energetic grew weaker day by day. His fingers tingled and went numb and his legs lost strength. he didn't know what was happening. Then he noticed something strange. Tea made with a small coffee maker on his desk tasted odd. Once he cleaned the machine the strange taste disappeared. KT's wife and colleagues became suspicious and asked a chemistry professor to test the water. They boiled the water from the coffee maker dry and found 63 milligrams of white powder. It turned out to be acrylamide. This potent carcinogen can be acutely toxic at high doses and is also a neurotoxin. Assistant Professor Sumaya said, the chemical is not something people can easily obtain. The disturbing part was that the powder had been dissolving into the tea he drank every day. Day after day, it was quietly damaging his nerves. He had no idea what was happening and thought he was just overworked. The group turned the sample over to campus police. Officers then installed surveillance equipment in Katie's office. On September 27th cameras recorded Eileen Wang who worked in the same office going through Katie's desk. On October 1st she was seen taking photos, looking through notebooks and rinsing the victim's mug with liquid from her own cup. Police watched as the evidence began to build. Eileen Wang is a microbiology graduate student from China. She was said to have done similar research in China. At the University of Wyoming, she worked in a different research area from KT, and the two did not get along. Their advisor, Professor Mark Omelski, said she failed her first thesis defence and became jealous of her colleague's success. Police also found that she had bought acrylamide twice on eBay the previous summer then asked the site to delete her account. When questioned on October 5th she said she has not used acrylamide for years. Police said she then tried to leave the United States after the interview. The next day Eileen Wang was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while preparing to leave the country. She was carrying several laptops, storage devices and documents. Prosecutors said she posed a serious flight risk. Her bail jumped from $200,000 to $1.5 million. Police are also investigating whether the case involved theft of research findings. KT still has trouble concentrating, tires easily and has lost feeling in his left hand. His advisor said acrylamide cannot be neutralized and can remain in neurons until the cells die, no one knows whether KT will fully recover. One student was left fighting serious health problems while another now faces criminal charges. Their advisor called it one of the worst blows of his career. Court records have not yet listed a defense attorney for Eileen Wang. She now faces felony charges in Wyoming and can receive up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Was competition in research alone really enough to drive someone this far? A researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, Shen Ming-shu, said her goal appears very clear. She was jealous of the other person's achievements and used poisoning to damage her colleague's health so he couldn't continue the research. She then stole advanced cancer treatment technology and tried to take those scientific results back to China. At about the same time, videos of another disturbing poisoning case drew public attention. In an exclusive report on October 10, the San Francisco Standard said a Chinese-American engineer in California had repeatedly poisoned a female co-worker's drinking water, causing serious health problems for her and her family. The victim was more outraged because the man, who once faced a possible life sentence, ultimately received only two years of probation. The court has now allowed him to seek dismissal of his felony conviction. Therefore, after 18 months, the victim decided to release the poisoning footage, accusing the justice system of being too lenient and failing to deliver justice. The case took place at Berkeley Engineering and Research in California. David Hsu and Rong Yuan were both highly educated metallurgical engineers. They had earned a PhD from the same laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Rong Yuan joined the company in January 2017. Soon afterward, she began suffering persistent dry heaving, hair loss and nausea. Her condition kept getting worse. At its most severe, she vomited frequently, made repeated trips to the emergency room and even returned to China for treatment. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. At one point, she feared she had stomach cancer. In November 2018, Rongyuan emailed co-workers to ask for time off due to severe vomiting. In his reply, David Hsu told her to stay home and not rush back to work. He also suggested there might be a mold problem in the office. It wasn't until January 2019 when Rong Yuan's mother drank water that Yuan had brought home from the office and noticed a strange taste, that Yuan began to suspect someone was tampering with her drinking water. She then bought a small camera and secretly installed it near her desk. On February 11 and March 4, 2019, the camera recorded David Su approaching Rong Yuan's desk and handling her water bottle. The March 4th video clearly showed him pouring a substance from a small white container into the bottle. Rong Yuan was shocked when she saw the footage and immediately turned it over to police. Investigators found the toxic heavy metal cadmium in her water bottle. Reports show that some water samples contained cadmium at 3.5 million times the US federal drinking water limit. Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal. Long-term exposure can damage the kidneys, cause bone disease and lead to other serious health problems. High-dose exposure can be fatal. More disturbing, Rong Yuan's parents were also exposed. Yuan had brought water home from the office and her mother used it for cooking. Police later tested blood samples from all three family members and found unusually high levels of cadmium. Prosecutors said David Su began adding harmful substances to Rong Yuan's food and drinking water in October 2017. As for a possible motive, California's Engineering Licensing Agency said in court documents that Su feared Yuan competed with him professionally and threatened his position at the company. David Su was arrested on March 28, 2019. Prosecutors initially charged him with two felonies, attempted pre-mediated murder and poisoning. He faced a possible life sentence. But after the case dragged through the courts for years, it took a dramatic turn. In 2023, Pamela Price, who supported reducing incarceration and advancing criminal justice reform, became Alameda County District Attorney. Under a plea deal offered by her office, the attempted murder and other charges against David Hsu were dropped, leaving only one poisoning count. In September 2023, David Hsu entered a no-contest plea. Legally, it has the same effect as conviction, but it does not mean he formally admitted every factual allegation made by prosecutors. The agreement originally recommended one year of probation. In March 2024, Judge Kimberly Caldwell called the sentence too lenient and extended probation to two years. In the end, David Hsu spent only one day in custody. According to court records obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge Caldwell described the sentencing arrangement as extremely lenient. The restitution also drew criticism. Rong Yuan sought nearly US$500,000, but the court ordered just US$7,058. Reports say Yuan still suffers long-term health problems and cannot work full time. She says the suffering endured by her and her family was far out of proportion to the punishment David Hsu received. Pamela Price was later recalled by voters. The lenient plea deals pursued during her time in office were among the reasons for public dissatisfaction. David Hsu's two-year probation ended in March 2026, but the case did not end there. ABC7 San Francisco reported that Sue appeared in court on October 12 and asked the Alameda County Court to dismiss his felony conviction under California law. The process is commonly called expungement. It doesn't mean the crime disappears completely or that all police records are erased but it can reduce the impact of the conviction in ordinary employment background checks. Reports say current Californian law allows eligible offenders who have completed all probation requirements to seek dismissal of conviction. Poisoning is not specifically excluded from this process. The local district attorney's office has opposed David Hsu's request. For victim Rong Yuan, the request was another major blow. She worries that if it is approved, future employers may not see Hsu's felony conviction in a standard background check, making it easier for him to return to the workforce. To keep the case from being forgotten, Rong Yuan decided to release the poisoning videos she recorded years ago. She told the media she had become deeply disappointed in the justice system and releasing the evidence was one of the last steps she felt she could take. The case has also renewed debate over California's criminal justice policies. Supporters of reform say sentencing should consider a defendant's background, plea agreements and chances of re-entering society. Critics question how much deterrence there is when a crime that continued for more than a year involved highly toxic substances and caused serious health problems for several people resulting in almost no jail time. In recent years, several poisoning cases involving researchers from China in the United States have also drawn public attention. In April 2018, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania was the site of an attempted murder case that drew national attention. Yu Kai Yang, a 22-year-old student from China, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli called the case weird and bizarre. At a news conference, he said the chemistry student had allegedly spent months putting small amounts of the heavy metal thallium and other chemicals into the food and water of his 22-year-old black roommate, Juwan Royal, making him sick. Thallium is a colourless, odorless and highly toxic metal. Repeated exposure can be fatal. Royal told police that in February, he took a sip from a water bottle in his dorm and immediately felt a burning sensation in his mouth. He even warned Yang about the water. In March, Royal noticed his mouthwash had changed colour and tasted strange. He also kept getting sick. A hospital later diagnosed him with thallium poisoning. He was treated immediately. Prosecutors said Yang had mixed chemicals into Royal's food, drinks and mouthwash. Royals has since graduated but still suffers lasting effects. After his arrest, Yang admitted buying various chemicals, but falsely said he bought them to harm himself in case he did poorly on exams. Before the case, Yukai Yang had been a star chemistry student at Lehigh University. He made the Dean's List for three straight years and won the university's top chemistry award in 2018. This February, after serving the minimum term of a 7 to 20-year prison sentence, Yang was transferred to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, beginning the deportation process. The cases were not limited to campuses and research labs. In 2023, a family with a 1-year-old baby in Tampa, Florida, said a downstairs neighbor nearly destroyed their lives. Omar Abdullah and his wife moved into a new apartment in June 2022 and later had a baby girl. Downstairs lived 36-year-old Chinese student Li Xiuming who said he was a chemistry PhD student at the University of South Florida. He repeatedly texted complaints about the noise including footsteps, doors closing and even the sound of a toilet seat. Abdullah said he and the landlord tested the noise and could barely hear anything. Months later, Abdullah, his wife and their daughter began suffering dizziness and vomiting. A friend picking up a package noticed a strong chemical smell, similar to nail polish remover but even harsher. They brought in-air conditioning, technicians and plumbers. The landlord replaced the water heater and cleaned the vents. The fire department also tested the apartment. Nothing explained the problem yet the smell kept returning. Abdullah eventually found a small crack near his front door entryway and installed a pinhole camera outside. The footage shocked him. It showed Li Suming using a syringe to draw up liquid, crouching by the door and injecting an unknown substance through the crack. Abdullah called the police immediately. Tests later found a chemical mixture containing the opioid drugs methadone and hydrocodone. The substance was potent enough to irritate the skin of a police officer who came into contact with it. Li Xiuming was arrested in late June 2023 and later released on bail. He pleaded not guilty. He faces three counts of battery, two counts of aggravated stalking, possession of a controlled substance, and charges related to injuring a police officer. He was also sued by the victims and the apartment complex. Police arrest records say Lee, born on July 1, 1987, described himself as a chemistry PhD student at the University of South Florida. but the university told the media he had not been enrolled since the end of the summer 2023 semester. Why have these promising students or so-called scholars from mainland China turned to poison to deal with conflicts? Analysts point to several possible reasons. First, sentencing in some US states is too lenient in cases like these, encouraging some offenders to believe they can get away with it. Second, some cases involve the theft of research results. those involved may see poisoning as a more direct and less detectable way to stop arrival. Analysts also point to attempts by some offenders to clear their records after serious crimes. They say this raises the possibility that people in such cases may have received legal or financial support from the Chinese Communist Party. Third, analysts say many of the students and so-called researchers involved in these cases are CCP-sponsored students. They differ from self-funded students in one major way. They may have been sent abroad with a mission to obtain intellectual property. They were also loyal operatives shaped by years of indoctrination and training under the CCP.