Chop Fluey: Chicoms Try Biowarfare (Again)
Americans love Trump for standing up to China. He should stick to his guns.
As if Covid and fentanyl weren’t enough, the Chinese are again trying to assault the United States through biological warfare. The Justice Department has accused two Chinese nationals of smuggling fungus into the United States that “can cause devastating diseases in crops” and that “scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon” according to the indictment.
The accused are Yunqing Jian—a member of the Chinese Communist Party—and Zunyong Liu, her lover and fellow Chinese national. The two researched the pathogen in China and one had inexplicably been allowed to work at University of Michigan’s Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction Laboratory since 2023.
The government alleges the two lied to federal agents and schemed about hiding the pathogen, fusarium graminearum, which apparently “is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year,” and produce toxins that “cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in livestock and humans.”
I was quoted in the Fox News article linked below about the developing news story. Please take a look.
Talking Points
President Trump and Secretary Rubio have taken decisive action to begin curtailing Chinese penetration of U.S. research institutes and a potential fifth column of Chinese in the USA.
Trump is the first president to fight back against China and the American people love him for it. They will love him even more for staying the course.
Curbs on Chinese student visas have hit a nerve with the Chinese government and the universities that profit from them (e.g., the University of Michigan).
The University of Michigan should lose all federal funding. This will serve as a warning to universities and Silicon Valley, which seem to have a problem quitting Chinese money.
Chinese student attendance at U.S. schools and employment at U.S. tech companies displace Americans, begin the process for Chinese to gain residency in the USA, and avail the Chinese government of sensitive information.
If our pinko legal eagle politicians in judges’ robes don’t mind us defending our country on occasion, Trump should go farther and end all Chinese student visas and stop the H1-B visa scam (different from the H2-B visa Trump likes that some resorts use for seasonal demand surge).
The government should require Chinese nationals working at U.S. research institutions or technology companies either to defect and sever all ties with China or be sent home.
It is insane that there are direct flights between China and the United States again. Why not just put out a welcome mat for the next pandemic that is made in China?
President Trump and Treasury Secretary Bessent are working to give China a chance at a fair trade deal. Bessent can be forgiven for word salad about “de-risking” from China instead of “de-linking” and presuming China wants to be a “responsible trading partner.” Trump also decided to be the adult and call Chinese leader Xi Jinping in an effort to unblock talks.
However the reality is that China has not accepted the need to reform. Not on trade. Not on economic warfare. Not on fentanyl. Not on agroterrorism. Not on hybrid war against the Philippines.
Rather than return to the bad old days of panda hugger Bob Zoellick wishing for China to be a “responsible stakeholder,” we will probably need a period of unilateral sustained high tariffs to reduce the China threat. Given China’s germs and trade abuses, the USA may need to consider applying something like the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 to China.
China can avoid this fate by at least taking simple confidence-building steps like stopping illegal fentanyl, stopping its low-intensity war on the Philippines, releasing and expelling dissidents who want to leave for the free world, and hiking the yuan to begin balancing trade. This would be a start and the U.S. could respond with the removal of sanctions focused on Chinese officials and pausing some tariff increases.
“Brussels Signal”
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Fox News Article Quotes Me
Chinese bioweapon smuggling case shows US 'trains our enemies,' 'learned nothing' from COVID: security expert
Former Trump [administration] advisor warns that US universities are 'essentially educating and arming our chief adversary'
By Danielle Wallace, Fox News
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."
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.
"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."
Story continues: https://www.foxnews.com/us/chinese-bioweapon-smuggling-case-shows-us-trains-our-enemies-learned-nothing-from-covid-security-expert
Quoted By Sky News Australia
On Sky News Australia, I discussed my view that Trump will prevail in most of the legal disputes that have held up policy: “This has really exposed that the mid-levels of the judiciary remain very activist. They are not just interpreting laws, they are trying to invent laws ... or trying to usurp powers that the Constitution gives to the president.” But Trump will win most cases at the Supreme Court.
Domino Theory Flashback: Trump-hating Media Rooting Against USA on Tariffs (Kelly Sadler)
Thanks for the tip on Brussels Signal! Signed up. I believe Trump will stick to his guns.