Chinese Researcher on US Visa Charged with Smuggling E. Coli Into the Country

Chinese Researcher on US Visa Charged with Smuggling E. Coli Into the Country

Over the past year, I wrote that federal agents had arrested Yunqing Jian, a University of Michigan scholar originally from China, on charges related to the attempted smuggling of a hazardous biological pathogen into the United States.

Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, are accused of conspiring to bring the fungus Fusarium graminearum (classified in scientific literature as a potential agroterrorism weapon) into the country, supposedly for research purposes at a University of Michigan laboratory.

Shortly afterward, Chengxuan Han, a Chinese national and Ph.D. student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, was charged with smuggling biological materials into the U.S. and making false statements to federal authorities. Han was apprehended at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after a flight from China.

Now, a Chinese postdoctoral researcher, Youhuang Xiang, has been charged in federal court with conspiring to smuggle more E. coli into our country. more

FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Friday that a post-doctoral researcher in the U.S. on a visa was charged with allegedly smuggling Escherichia coli (E. coli) into the country and making false statements about it.

Patel identified the post-doctoral researcher as Youhuang Xiang, but did not name the university involved in the case.

“This is yet another example of a researcher from China, given the privilege to work at a U.S. university, who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China,” Patel wrote on X.

🇨🇳 national Youhuang Xiang, a postdoctoral fellow at Innes Lab at the Department of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington, was arrested for smuggling genetic material from E. coli bacteria into the US on Nov 25. Xiang entered the country in 2023 on a J-1 educational exchange… pic.twitter.com/al254vDM7a

— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) December 19, 2025

This postdoctoral researcher worked at Indiana University and used shipments of women’s underwear to smuggle in E. coli samples.

During their investigation, it was revealed that Xiang was previously affiliated with PRC Key Laboratories in China. Court documents state that Key Laboratories is overseen by the Chinese government and “has a history of concerning actions.”

In mid-November of 2025, the FBI Indianapolis Division received a tip out of eastern Michigan regarding Chinese nationals smuggling biological pathogens into the United States. Specifically, the tip alleged that shipments from China were being sent to IU researchers, including Xiang.

Shipping documents obtained by the FBI reportedly showed that Xiang had recently gotten a package sent from China to his Bloomington residence.

The package was reportedly valued at $186 and contained “Underwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens.” Investigators found it “odd” that Xiang was purchasing and shipping women’s underwear from China.

Intriguingly, the researcher’s studies focused on wheat pathogen resistance.

“Information provided to the FBI by CBP included information about the history of shipments from China to certain individuals at IU conducting research into wheat pathogen Resistance,” the criminal complaint said. “That information indicated that XIANG was associated with that research and that XIANG received a shipment from China at his residence on March 28, 2024.”

There is no information I could locate on the specific strain that was smuggled.

E. coli is mostly harmless and naturally lives in the body, but some strains can cause abdominal cramps, fever, vomiting and diarrhea. An infection caused by E. coli can lead to life-threatening disease. E. coli is usually transmitted to humans through contaminated foods like undercooked meat or fecal contamination of water.

Meanwhile, Yunqing Jian (the researcher who brought in the agroterrorism fungus) has been deported.

Yunqing Jian, 33, from the People’s Republic of China, was sentenced Nov. 12 to time served while awaiting disposition of the federal case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office previously said.

Jian, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, was arrested in June along with her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, for smuggling in a fungus called Fusarium graminearum. The noxious fungus is known to cause “head blight,” a disease that affects barley, rice, wheat and maize, resulting in economic losses worth billions of dollars each year.

Liu has returned to China, and authorities say he is not likely to return to the United States.

Chengxuan Han was also sentenced to time served and returned to China.

In the press release, Jerome Gorgon, interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, wrote that although Han’s sentence was not severe, the case reflects a broader commitment to national security.

“While the criminal outcome could have been far worse for Ms. Han, she will be removed from the U.S. and barred from reentry as the result of her actions,” Gorgon wrote. “This case highlights the importance of collaboration among federal agencies to protect our communities and uphold the rule of law”

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