The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a long history of engaging in agricultural espionage and, potentially, sabotage in the United States. This is partly to decouple from U.S. agriculture, and partly to achieve food security in the event of a major conflict or naval blockade. In the latest incident, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged two former employees at a University of Michigan laboratory with smuggling samples of a toxic fungus described as “a potential agroterrorism weapon” into the United States. The two citizens of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are both specialists in the fungus and its modes of transmission and infection in crops. One, Jian Yunqing, is alleged to be a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member. Other cases include those of Mo Hailong and Zhang Weiqiang, both PRC-citizen research scientists who used their employment to cover attempts to smuggle genetically modified seeds to the PRC, and speculation that PRC-linked sabotage may be behind Florida’s citrus greening disease epidemic.
Fungus Smuggling Case Highlights Agricultural Espionage in the United States – Jamestown
