3 More Chinese Researchers Charged With Smuggling Biological Materials Into US

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Three additional Chinese researchers at the University of Michigan have been charged as part of an ongoing investigation into the smuggling of biological materials from China to the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Nov. 5.

Bai Xu, 28, Zhang Fengfan, 27, and Zhang Zhiyong, 30, were charged in a criminal complaint filed on Nov. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Bai and Zhang Fengfan were charged with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the United States, while Zhang Zhiyong was charged with making false statements to federal agents.

The three defendants were arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 16 and taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before they could board a flight to China.

Frank Fang reports that The Epoch Times was unable to reach the defendants’ attorneys for comment, but notes that the case is connected to Han Chengxuan, a Chinese scholar at China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Han was supposed to start research at the University of Michigan in June under a J-1 visa, but was arrested upon her arrival at Detroit Metro Airport that month. She was accused of having shipped, prior to her arrival in the United States, petri dishes containing nematode worms, known as C. elegans, to the university and falsely declaring them on shipping documents.

Han later pleaded no contest to three smuggling charges and to lying to U.S. customs officials and was sentenced to time served in September.

According to the criminal complaint, Han was removed from the United States on Sept. 11.

“Allegedly attempting to smuggle biological materials under the guise of ‘research’ is a serious crime that threatens America’s national and agricultural security,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Nov. 5.

“We will remain vigilant to threats like these from foreign nationals who would take advantage of America’s generosity to advance a malicious agenda.”

Shipments
Bai, Zhang Fengfan, and Zhang Zhiyong all came to the United States on J-1 visas as scholars at the University of Michigan, according to the criminal complaint. Bai arrived in the United States in August 2024, and his roommate, Zhang Fengfan, arrived in September 2023. Zhang Zhiyong arrived in September 2021.

On March 5 this year, a UPS shipment from Han, which was addressed to Bai’s apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was intercepted and found by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to be “improperly manifested as ‘doc,’” the criminal complaint stated. The shipment included a handwritten note listing 28 DNA molecules, or plasmids, four of which were related to C. elegans.

Prosecutors said the UPS shipment was the source of one of the three smuggling counts to which Han pleaded no contest.

On March 31, CBP officers contacted Bai about the intercepted UPS package, but he was “uncooperative and refused to speak to or meet with the officers,” according to the criminal complaint.

From July 2024 to October 2024, Han also allegedly shipped several packages to Dylan Zhang, whom prosecutors believed to be Zhang Fengfan. According to the criminal complaint, one of the packages, wrongfully manifested as “plastic plates,” included eight petri dishes “containing C. elegans with genetic modifications.”

The shipments sent to Zhang Fengfan from Sept. 23 and Sept. 29 in the same year were the source of two of the three smuggling counts to which Han pleaded no contest, according to prosecutors.

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