Federal prosecutors have charged three Chinese nationals on J-1 visas: Xu Bai, 28, Fengfan Zhang, 27 and Zhiyong Zhang, 30. Bai and F. Zhang were charged with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the United States and Z. Zhang was charged with making false statements to federal agents.

According to US Attorney Gorgon: “These 3 men are part of a long and alarming pattern of criminal activities committed by Chinese Nationals under the cover of the University of Michigan”

The defendants were working at the University of Michigan lab of Dr. Xianzhong Xu, allegedly received concealed shipments of biological materials and refused to cooperate in a university investigation.

According to the criminal complaint, in 2024 and 2025, Bai and F. Zhang were the recipients of multiple shipments containing concealed biological materials related to round worms which had been sent from the PRC to the United States by Chengxuan Han, a citizen of the PRC.

Han was pursuing a Ph.D. from the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, PRC and in June 2025, traveled to the United States to work in the laboratory at UM. 

Han recently pleaded no contest to three counts of smuggling and one count of false statements, was sentenced and then removed from the United States.

The context of this investigation is closely linked to the previous case involving “Fusarium graminearum,” a fungus classified as a potential agro-terrorism weapon, which was smuggled into a UM lab by researcher Yunqing Jian and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu.

That case had already highlighted the links between Chinese government-funded research and the illegal introduction of pathogens into the U.S., underscoring the risk to agricultural and national security posed by biotechnological espionage.

These cases demonstrate a critical vulnerability within foreign student and exchange visitor programs and reflect a commitment by foreign actors to exploit U.S. higher education institutions for illicit purposes, often related to the PRC’s military-civil fusion strategies. As ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons stated, it is vital to “safeguard the American people and address vulnerabilities within the foreign student and exchange visitor programs.”

Investigations are ongoing, with federal authorities determined to defend the homeland and hold accountable those who violate laws using academic research as a cover.

This case is the third involving Chinese nationals at the university smuggling sensitive biological agents this year, raising concerns about biosecurity risks in academic collaborations.