Michigan ag researcher sent back to China for smuggling
Published 11:00 am Thursday, November 13, 2025
A Chinese national who conducted research at the University of Michigan was sentenced to time served and sent back to China after pleading guilty to smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that causes head blight in wheat.
Yunqing Jian, 33, pleaded guilty Nov. 12 in federal court in Detroit to one count of smuggling and one count of making false statements. She admitted to conspiring with her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, to smuggle in Fusarium graminearum.
Jian and Liu co-authored scientific papers on the fungus and planned to continue their research at the university. Jian and Liu, however, did not have a permit from the USDA to import the biological material.
Jian was arrested in June and had been in jail for five months and nine days. U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq ordered her released to the U.S. Marshals Services and sent back to China.
Liu also has been charged with smuggling, but he was immediately sent back to China in 2024 after he was caught at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport with strains of the fungus in his backpack.
Three other Chinese nationals associated with the University of Michigan were charged this month with smuggling or lying about importing without a USDA permit a type of worm commonly studied by neuroscientists.
U.S. attorneys sought a two-year sentence for Jian.
“We cannot allow these smugglers to work in the shadows of the University of Michigan. This felony conviction and sentence are a small but important measure against secret biological threats from China,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said in a statement.
Federal authorities in June said Jian illustrated China’s threat to the U.S. food supply. Her attorneys argued she is a nerdy academic who cut corners to continue research that helps farmers.
