[Page H2474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CHINESE NATIONALS

  (Mr. LaMalfa of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, recently two Chinese nationals were 
arrested in Michigan for having smuggled in a pathogen that would be 
greatly harmful to our agricultural crops, livestock, and even the 
human use for these crops.
  A fungal pathogen, known as fusarium graminearum, was identified in 
scientific literature as being a potential agroterrorism weapon. This 
is what the two Chinese nationals, Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu, 
brought into the country.
  They smuggled this pathogen in via their electronic devices, which 
also contained evidence of Chinese Communist Party membership. The 
different methods with which they brought the pathogen in were hidden 
in devices or in tissues. There were various ways of smuggling it past 
customs.
  We can't imagine what kind of a threat this would be toward our 
agricultural production in this country if something like this was 
allowed to get loose. They tried to get into the University of Michigan 
through their test labs and through the work that the university does 
through agriculture.
  What did they want to do? Maybe they wanted to infect everything that 
was going through Michigan and coming out in the new crops.
  Some of the effects of it on certain grains would be devastating, for 
example, to wheat, barley, grains, and rice. Indeed, the world's most 
important staple crops would be infected during their flowering stage.
  The grains would often appear shriveled, bleached, or pinkish, making 
them unusable. Also, with these mycotoxins in here, it would cause 
toxicity to humans and animals. It would cause them to vomit or 
experience even worse effects in the livestock or people that would 
happen to use it.
  What would the possible impact be? It would mean billions of dollars 
in crop losses globally each year due to lost yields, contamination, 
and rejection in the market. As I mentioned, these mycotoxins would 
cause vomiting, liver damage, immune suppression, and reproductive 
defects in both humans and livestock.
  This is pretty nasty stuff that the Chinese Communist Party is 
sneaking into this country by one means or the other. In this case, it 
is at the University of Michigan.
  It is known to be funded by the Chinese Government, though the 
University of Michigan states it has received no funding directly from 
the Chinese Government for this work. It points out that we need more 
clarification and more clear knowledge of the status of who is funding 
the research, who is funding the colleges, and who is funding the 
universities for things like this.
  This is a bigger threat than we could imagine to the American food 
supply with what we produce, both domestically and those it would 
support around the world.
  One of the two nationals has been accused of multiple smuggling 
attempts from 2022-2024. Again, I mentioned hiding samples of whatever 
they might be carrying in boots or mailed in, in a textbook.
  What will we do about it? Are we going to tighten up the restrictions 
on what is coming in through China and have closer checks of who is 
being allowed to import things and what is happening at our 
universities?
  Are we going to just let this go and have our food supply devastated 
by the constant threat of people trying to undermine and break down our 
country?
  We can't have these contaminated harvests. We can't have the 
continued threat to the confidence people in this country and our 
exporters have in the American food supply.

  We can't overstate what this means for agriculture, what it means for 
the U.S. economy, and what it means for our national security with the 
food supply we grow and the overall health of U.S. citizens.
  We need to do a much better job, whether it is going to be what is 
smuggled through our airports; who is allowed to bring things into this 
country; what their research consists of, and who is funding it. 
Mainly, in this case it is the Chinese Communist Party and their 
government.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a dead serious issue. We better take it seriously, 
or we are going to be in big trouble.

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