Potential ‘agroterrorism weapon’ fungus smuggled into US by Chinese scientists, FBI alleges

It causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock, it said. […]

He initially claimed ignorance about the samples but later said he was planning to use the material for research at a University of Michigan lab where Jian worked and where Liu had previously worked, the FBI said.

According to the complaint, Jian and Liu, her boyfriend, had both previously conducted work on the fungus in China.

The FBI said authorities found a scientific article on Liu’s phone that was titled, “Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.”

Messages between the two in 2024 suggest that Jian was already tending to Fusarium graminearum at the campus lab before Liu was caught at the Detroit airport, the FBI said. The university does not have federal permits to handle it.

I’m totally unfamiliar with this field, so I could just be swallowing propaganda, but even if the FBI is lying about that article, it seems like a crazy important thing. These two secretly took an invasive fungus that targets one of humanity’s largest staple crops to a country without permission to study it, while knowing exactly how harmful this could be.