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Following news that two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling a “dangerous biological pathogen” into the U.S. to study at an American university, Fox News Digital spoke to an expert on China who said the arrests should be a wake-up call to the country.
“I was entirely unsurprised, which is a sad commentary, but it speaks to the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP wants to kill Americans,” Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute focusing on U.S. and China relations, told Fox News Digital after FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrests of the two Chinese nationals.
“Look at what they’ve done with smuggling fentanyl precursors into our country to kill Americans, look at the effects of them failing to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Sobolik said. “Dead Americans. The fact that they want to target Americans here within the United States with pathogens and with bioweapons. This is the Chinese Communist Party. This is what they do. They’re in a cold war with the United States. They want to become the most powerful nation in the world and they wanna make the world safe for their tyranny and unsafe for freedom. And they’re coming for us here at home.”
The couple are accused of smuggling a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a “potential agroterrorism weapon,” according to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors note that the noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, and “is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.”
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The Justice Department also says Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage and “reproductive defects in humans and livestock.”
According to the criminal complaint, one of the accused allegedly received Chinese government funding for her work on the pathogen in China.
The couple are accused of bringing the pathogen into the U.S. to study at a University of Michigan laboratory, which raises more concerns about Chinese nationals infiltrating American universities.
Last month, a bombshell report out of Stanford University shed light on the influence of spies from the Chinese Communist Party that the student newspaper says have likely infiltrated the prestigious institution and other universities nationwide to gather intelligence.
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“American higher education is addicted to the Chinese Communist Party,” Sobolik told Fox News Digital. “It’s addicted to easy money that has come from Beijing for decades. It’s addicted to international students that pay full tuition, many of which are then coerced and pressured by the Chinese embassy and consulates and other networks to spy for the party and report back.
“American universities need to finally open their eyes and stop being willfully blind to the threat of the CCP. They’re vectors for intelligence gathering. They are vectors for these threats that target Americans on our own soil. That’s unacceptable. If sovereignty means anything, we need to be able to protect Americans within the borders of the United States. And universities cannot continue to be willing accomplices of the Chinese Communist Party.”
A Chinese embassy official said Wednesday he was unaware of the case involving two Chinese nationals charged with smuggling a “dangerous biological pathogen” into the U.S. for university research.
“I don’t know the specific situation, but I would like to emphasize that the Chinese government has always required overseas Chinese citizens to abide by local laws and regulations and will also resolutely safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party Embassy in the U.S.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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