Chinese bioweapon smuggling case shows US 'trains our enemies,' 'learned nothing' from COVID: security expert

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In response to the Department of Justice charging two Chinese nationals - including a University of Michigan research fellow - with allegedly smuggling a potential "agroterrorism" weapon into the U.S., national security experts tell Fox News Digital that the Trump administration must continue to take action to prevent American colleges and companies from "essentially educating and arming our chief adversary in the world." 

"In some cases, it seems like we learned nothing from COVID," Christian Whiton, a former senior foreign policy advisor in the Bush and Trump administrations, told Fox News Digital. "We allow direct flights now from China to the U.S. mainland. Again, that is crazy. And the whole fact that we are allowing researchers, even in the realm of dealing with pathogens to have access anywhere in the United States, much less the universities, is pretty insane. It seems like a pre-COVID mindset." 

The two Chinese nationals were charged Tuesday with smuggling Fusarium graminearum fungus, a dangerous biological pathogen and "known agroterrorism agent" responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year, through Detroit's airport. The noxious substance causes "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, according to federal prosecutors. In humans and livestock, exposure to its toxins causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects. 

"It's a new take on Chinese espionage and sabotage of the US economy. But it's not a surprise. I think that China has failed to pull back on any of its aggressive activity. And this is something that the Trump administration probably wants to take into consideration," Whiton said of the case. "I think it's both the government and our universities have let down the American people." 

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Whiton told Fox News Digital that Chinese infiltration of U.S. institutions has been happening since at least the 1990s - when Chinese spies stole American nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico - and since then, "there's been this systemic desire to put Chinese nationals into especially these technical areas, technical universities." Whiton said Beijing does not consider only Chinese citizens as its agents, as "anyone of Chinese ethnicity" have been viewed as "fair game" to be recruited. He categorized the H1-B visa program as essentially a "scam," asserting that about a quarter are awarded to Chinese nationals who "end up at some of our high-tech companies." 

Traditionally, Whiton explained, Republicans have believed universities should run themselves without political interference, but doing so has allowed such institutions to be taken over by left-wingers. 

"Taxpayers are funding these things and shouldn't be forced to fund things that are anathema to their beliefs and what they know to be true. Things like we shouldn't train our enemies at taxpayer expense," Whiton said. "So, I think it goes along with Republicans being pretty wimpy in the past, but only more recently with the emergence of the new right and the MAGA movement finally taking a tougher stand on some of these left-wing universities." 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the United States does not want to de-couple with China, though Beijing has a choice whether to be a reliable partner. 

"The reality is China is kind of doing what it has always done," Whiton said. "So if we're looking for a change of Chinese conduct because of President Trump being in office, it just hasn't happened yet. So I can't say that's a surprise." 

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration would "aggressively" revoke the student visas for Chinese nationals, "including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." After a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which the White House said focused mostly on trade, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that Chinese students were still coming and the U.S. would be "honored" to have them. Yet, the president said the students need to be properly "checked" and the administration wants lists of Chinese nationals admitted to schools, such as Harvard and Columbia, so that vetting can occur. 

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"That's a step in the right direction," Whiton said. "But in reality, we probably need to recognize these are our chief economic and security adversary in the world and take those visa numbers down closer to zero and start sending these people home." 

Whiton said there is a "faulty assumption" that Chinese students would come to the United States, learn about American culture and bring an appreciation back home to China. 

"In reality, they sort of come over here, they're in a bubble, they pick up technical skills, and then they go back to China and put them to use for either the military directly or for corporations that are either utilized by the Chinese military or that are trying to undermine U.S. technology companies," Whiton said. "We really are essentially educating and arming our chief adversary in the world." 

Former Rep. Michelle Steel, a California Republican who served on the House foreign and intelligence committees, told Fox News Digital that Chinese students educated in the U.S. essentially return home without an appreciation for America. 

"After they study here, they took all of our brains here, and they took everything back to their country, and they are using to attack United States. And they hate United States after that education. Guess what we are teaching in the universities? Not love United States!" Steel, who was born in Korea and grew up in Japan, told Fox News Digital.  "They are studying some very sensitive things in our universities. We really had to vet them well." 

In her eyes, U.S. universities have prioritized bringing in international students for economic gain. 

"Because of all the money," she said. "They try to build their endowments, and they want to just show how big their research center is." 

She cited the case against former Chair of Harvard University's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, Dr. Charles Lieber, who was convicted in 2023 of lying to federal authorities about his affiliation with the People's Republic of China's Thousand Talents Program and the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in Wuhan, China. Federal prosecutors said Lieber had been paid $1.5 million by the CCP and failed to report additional income of $50,000 payments per month from the WUT. 

"It's not just at University of Michigan, but it's just everywhere," Steel said. "We cannot bring everybody in to these universities and studying together and helping to build CCP's military. That's just totally no-no, because you know what they're doing in the Pacific areas and African countries and South American countries. And they're just expanding everywhere. And we are the only one [who] can stop [it]. And I think President Trump is doing great job." 

The former congresswoman pointed to how the House Select Committee on the CCP in 2023 uncovered a $220 million payment made by the Chinese government to the University of California at Berkeley to help build a massive, joint institute in China - funding which UC Berkeley failed to disclose under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. She has advocated for legislation that would decrease the reporting requirement from $250,000 to $50,000. 

Steel also noted that Stanford University - located in the heart of Silicon Valley in California - has a relationship with China's Peking University, which in turn has ties to the Chinese military and "goes straight into the nuclear program." The current chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., penned a letter to Stanford in March over concerns about U.S. universities "admitting large numbers of Chinese nationals into advanced STEM programs, potentially at the expense of qualified Americans."