Chinese researchers alleged plot to smuggle crop-killing fungus into US is an attack on US food supply: feds

National security authorities and members of Congress are raising alarm over the alleged plot by two romantically involved Chinese researchers to smuggle samples of a dangerous crop-killing fungus into the US.Yunquing Jian, 33, a Communist Party loyalist and lab researcher at the University of Michigan who received Chinese government funding for her work, plotted the illicit transport of the pathogen with her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, the FBI alleged.Liu was was caught at Detroit Metropolitan Airport last July after allegedly attempting to sneak packages of Fusarium graminearum into the country, the feds said.“This is an attack on the American food supply,” one senior Trump administration official told The Post.The fungus is already present in the US, but if it was manipulated to become resistant to treatment or to spread more easily, it could have the potential to devastate American farms, one expert told The Post.The US should be testing the fungus sample for any evidence it’s been tampered with, the expert added.There are similar allegations that the virus that causes COVID-19 was enhanced by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of US-funded “gain-of-function” research of the naturally occurring SARS pathogen.

China denies that COVID leaked from the lab, but US intel agencies now say that appears to be the most likely cause of the pandemic.“The CCP will use every tool in its warfare toolbox to cripple the United States and bring us to our knees.

A pathogen like this, if successfully introduced into a crop, could inflict significant economic loss for U.S.agriculture producers,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) told The Post.Sen.

Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said it appears the FBI may have intercepted a “potential bioweapon.”“We are very fortunate the Trump administration and federal law enforcement stopped this potential bioweapon before it compromised our nation’s food supply,” Ernst told The Post.“Th...