Overview
- Yunqing Jian, 33, admitted to smuggling and making false statements, had a conspiracy count dismissed, and received a five‑month time‑served sentence with prompt deportation and a reentry ban.
- Jian worked in a University of Michigan lab and acknowledged asking a colleague to ship Fusarium graminearum concealed in a statistics book in 2024, a package agents intercepted as the judge called the matter “very strange.”
- Officials warned of potential harm to crops from the regulated pathogen, though the lead prosecutor said he had no evidence of evil intent and a defense plant biologist argued the samples posed no realistic risk.
- Prosecutors say Jian and boyfriend Zunyong Liu used concealment tactics that included stashing samples in boots; Liu admitted carrying samples through Detroit’s airport and is now in China, where he is unlikely to return.
- Federal agencies including CBP, HSI and the FBI led the probe, which comes alongside related Michigan cases such as the September time‑served sentence and return to China of Chengxuan Han and new charges announced last week against three other scholars.