Final week, it was found that 19-year-old Haoxiang Gao, a Chinese language pupil attending the College of Michigan, who was charged in October with illegally voting within the 2024 normal election, managed to evade sentencing through the use of a second passport to return to China.
The 19-year-old Chinese language citizen by accident turned himself in when he returned to the early voting location in Ann Arbor, MI, the place he had efficiently forged a poll and requested to retrieve his poll. The clerk knowledgeable the Chinese language pupil that his votes had already been tabulated and that there was no solution to establish his poll. As a result of Gao was capable of efficiently evaded authorities, he was additionally capable of stop a public relations nighbmare for MI Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who repeatedly assured voters and members of the US Congress that there isn’t any have to make voters present proof of citizenship, as a result of foreigners don’t vote in our elections as a result of they realize it’s towards the regulation.
In September 2025, the Michigan Secretary of State was requested by the Committee on Home Administration on the “American Confidence in Elections: Trying Forward to the 2024 Common Election” listening to whether or not she thought Individuals ought to must show their citizenship to vote in federal elections. Benson smugly responded to his query by saying, “No,” that she doesn’t consider residents needs to be required to show citizenship, assuring the members of Congress, “There isn’t any proof that non-citizens are voting in our elections. One month later, Gao, a non-citizen, admitted to illegally voting in our elections. Jocelyn Benson is presently a Democratic Celebration contender for governor in Michigan. Does it appear curious that Gao was capable of evade federal brokers and escape prosecution by fleeing the US to keep away from a high-profile courtroom case that might injury Jocelyn Benson’s credibility and her possibilities of changing into the Democratic candidate for governor?
Final week, a 19-yr-old Chinese language citizen who illegally voted in MI’s 2024 normal election was ready to make use of a 2nd passport to evade prosecution by fleeing to China.
Will his curious disappearance assist MI’s DISHONEST SOS Jocelyn Benson w/ her bid for governor, by avoiding a trial? pic.twitter.com/5vW87oGNh0
— PattyMI (@PattyLovesTruth) June 3, 2025
One week after Gao efficiently escaped sentencing by fleeing to China, President Trump’s FBI has arrested one other Chinese language citizen tied to the College of Michigan.
34-year-old Zunyoug Liu, a feminine Chinese language analysis fellow within the Molecular, Mobile, and Developmental Biology Division on the College of Michigan, was arrested by federal brokers and charged with trying to smuggle a organic pathogen into the US. Investigators say the substance is assessed as a possible agricultural terrorism weapon, able to inflicting billions of {dollars} in injury to meals crops.
In keeping with unsealed federal courtroom information, 33-year-old analysis fellow Yunqing Jian, whose telephone information reveal that she has pledged allegiance to the Chinese language Communist Celebration, was working together with her 34-year-old boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, to smuggle Fusarium graminearum, a lethal fungus, into the US by means of Detroit Metropolitan Airport on July 27. The lethal fungus causes “head blight,” a illness affecting wheat, barley, maize, and rice, leading to billions of {dollars}’ price of financial losses worldwide every year, based on federal officers in the US. Its toxins additionally trigger vomiting, liver injury, and reproductive defects in people and livestock, the discharge says.
In keeping with the Detroit News, the fees towards the Chinese language couple embody conspiracy to defraud the U.S., smuggling, making false statements to investigators, and visa fraud. The smuggling cost carries the stiffest penalty — as much as 20 years in federal jail.
The roots of the case involving the Chinese language scholar and her boyfriend stretch to March 2024. That’s when Liu utilized for a B2 vacationer visa to enter the U.S.
The appliance requested: Do you search to have interaction in espionage, sabotage, export management violations, or another criminal activity whereas in the US?”
Liu answered “no,” and officers accepted his vacationer visa.
He arrived at Detroit Metro 4 months later, in July 2024.
Throughout an inspection, an officer discovered a hidden observe in Chinese language, a spherical piece of filter paper, and 4 baggies full of small clumps of reddish plant materials, the FBI agent wrote.
Liu lied when requested questions in regards to the supplies, based on the courtroom submitting, saying somebody “should have put them into his bag.”
“After additional questioning, Liu acknowledged that the supplies had been completely different strains of the pathogen Fusarium graminearum,” the agent wrote.
Jian made an preliminary look in federal courtroom Tuesday afternoon and is being held with out bond whereas awaiting a detention listening to Thursday. Her boyfriend has returned to China.
From the FBI agent’s prison submitting: “When Customs and Border Safety officers questioned Liu, he made false statements to CBP officers in regards to the goal of his go to to the US, and his data of the existence of the organic pathogen in his possession. Finally, Liu admitted to smuggling the pathogen and acknowledged that he introduced the pathogen into the US in order that he might conduct analysis on it at a laboratory on the College of Michigan, the place his girlfriend, Jian, labored.”
In keeping with the complaint, Jian acquired funding from the Chinese language authorities for her work on this pathogen in China. The grievance additionally alleges that Jian’s electronics include info describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese language Communist Celebration. It’s additional alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese language college the place he conducts analysis on the identical pathogen and that he first lied however then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America—by means of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport—in order that he might conduct analysis on it on the laboratory on the College of Michigan the place his girlfriend, Jian, labored.
After LIU’s smuggling of the organic pathogen, FBI Brokers interviewed JIAN, who falsely claimed that she knew nothing about LIU’s smuggling or his intent to conduct analysis on the pathogen on the laboratory throughout his go to.
In actual fact, an examination of digital communications between LIU and JIAN reveals that the 2 mentioned the transport of organic supplies and analysis being finished within the laboratory previous to LIU’s arrival. Digital proof additionally reveals that JIAN has been concerned in smuggling packages of organic materials into the US on prior events.LIU initially acknowledged that he didn’t know what the supplies had been and that somebody should have put them into his bag. When requested why somebody would put these supplies into his bag, LIU acknowledged that he didn’t know, and that possibly he had by accident put the supplies there. After additional questioning, LIU acknowledged that the supplies had been completely different strains of the pathogen Fusarium graminearum.
LIU acknowledged that he deliberate to clone the completely different strains of Fusarium graminearum contained on the filter paper and make extra samples if the experiments on the reddish plant materials failed. LIU acknowledged that he deliberately hid the samples in his backpack as a result of he knew there have been restrictions on the importation of the supplies. LIU confirmed that he had deliberately put the samples in a wad of tissues so CBP Officers can be much less more likely to discover and confiscate them, and he might proceed his analysis.
United States Legal professional Gorgon acknowledged: “The alleged actions of those Chinese language nationals—together with a loyal member of the Chinese language Communist Celebration—are of the gravest nationwide safety issues. These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America, the place they apparently meant to make use of a College of Michigan laboratory to additional their scheme.”
“The federal prices introduced as we speak towards Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu, each residents of the Individuals’s Republic of China, signify a vital development in our efforts to safeguard our communities and uphold nationwide safety,” stated Cheyvoryea Gibson, Particular Agent in Cost of the FBI Detroit Area Workplace. “These people exploited their entry to laboratory amenities at a neighborhood college to have interaction within the smuggling of organic pathogens, an act that posed an imminent menace to public security. Because of the distinctive investigative efforts of the FBI Detroit Counterintelligence Process Drive, in shut cooperation with U.S. Customs and Border Safety’s Workplace of Area Operations, these harmful actions have been successfully halted. The FBI stays resolutely dedicated to collaborating with our regulation enforcement companions to guard the residents of Michigan and defend the US towards such grave threats.”
U.S. Customized and Border Safety, Director of Area Operations Marty C. Raybon acknowledged, “In the present day’s prison prices levied upon Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu are indicative of CBP’s important function in defending the American individuals from organic threats that might devastate our agricultural economic system and trigger hurt to people; particularly when it entails a researcher from a serious college trying to clandestinely deliver doubtlessly dangerous organic supplies into the US. This was a fancy investigation involving CBP workplaces from throughout the nation, alongside our federal companions. I’m grateful for his or her tireless efforts, guaranteeing our borders stay safe from all varieties of threats whereas safeguarding America’s nationwide safety pursuits.”
