Epoch Times - Another “Chinese Researcher” Arrested for Sneaking Genes into the USA

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July 29, 2025 - Epoch Times

18:22

Another “Chinese Researcher” Arrested for Sneaking Genes into the USA

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	About a week ago, we published an episode on this program on Facts Matter detailing how two Chinese nationals, a boyfriend and a girlfriend, were both doing research at the University of Michigan, but they were caught by the FBI trying to smuggle into the United States a dangerous fungus, a type of deadly fungus that can target crops.
	And we ended that particular episode by considering out loud how many possible other Chinese researchers are here in the U.S. also doing the same thing.
	And wouldn't you believe it?
	Within just a single week, another Chinese researcher, also at the University of Michigan, also at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, was also caught by the feds trying to smuggle in biological material.
	Although this time it was not a fungus.
	Instead, it was a type of roundworm.
	And perhaps the best part of all of it was that this woman, probably more by coincidence than anything, came from one of the most famous cities in the entire world, Wuhan, China.
	Let's go through the details together right after you take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons, which will quite literally force the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to ever more people.
	Now, to start with, let me introduce to you the woman at the center of this new case.
	Her name is Ms. Han Cheng Xuan.
	She is a citizen of China and she's currently pursuing her PhD at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology located in Wuhan, China.
	And as I'm sure you're wondering, even though it's irrelevant to the story, you're wondering how far her school is from the virology lab where COVID was being studied.
	Well, I looked it up and it's a 21-minute drive, roughly 10 kilometers, whatever those are.
	Now, her doctoral thesis, the research that she was working on to get her PhD, was described by her in her visa application as follows.
	Quote, Hans studies fundamental questions in neuroscience and physiology.
	Specifically, her research aims to understand how animals detect sensory cues such as touch, light, chemicals, and temperature, and how the neural circuits and synapses process sensory information to produce behavioral output.
	Additionally, Han's research seeks to understand how genes and drugs regulate these processes.
	So obviously, a very smart young lady doing high-level science.
	And she was going to be doing the bulk of her scientific research over at a laboratory at the University of Michigan.
	In fact, to that end, the University of Michigan had already sent Ms. Han an offer letter inviting her to be a visiting scholar at one of their labs on campus.
	And Ms. Hahn's plan, at least according to her, was to go to the University of Michigan for one year, complete her scientific research project, and then go back to her own school in Wuhan in order to defend her dissertation and hopefully get that PhD.
	However, instead of just hopping on a plane and flying over to Michigan, Ms. Han began to do something odd.
	While still in China, she began to send package after package to two people who worked at the University of Michigan Laboratory.
	Now, in the court documents, the identities of these two people, the ones who were receiving the packages, were actually redacted.
	And instead, in the documents, they're simply referred to as recipient one and recipient two.
	And here's what we know about these two individuals.
	Recipient one was an active member of the University of Michigan lab, whereas recipient two was identified as being a faculty staff member at the University of Michigan.
	Also, it later came out that both of these two recipients worked alongside Ms. Han at her university in Wuhan.
	And so I'm assuming that both of these people are Chinese.
	Now, it's unclear how many packages in total Ms. Han sent from China to these two individuals, but the feds claim to have intercepted four of them.
	Let me read to you what the feds wrote that they found in the packages, as well as a picture of each one and the illicit content within.
	Starting with package number one.
	Quote, On September 18th, 2024, Han was listed as the shipper for a parcel manifested as a quote-unquote letter to recipient one's home address.
	This package was seized by Custom and Border Protection, and an inspection revealed a biological sample which appeared to be plasmids labeled as PRKS.
	According to open source research, PRKS likely refers to a gene or protein related to C. elegans.
	And C. elegans, for your reference, are a species of roundworm that are routinely used in scientific research.
	Now, it's unclear what exactly that package was, except for likely being a gene or protein related to this particular roundworm.
	And so that was package number one.
	Then about a week later, Ms. Han mailed out package number two.
	Quote, on September 24th, 2024, Han was listed as a shipper for a package addressed to recipient one's home address.
	The shipment was manifested as plastic plates.
	However, an inspection revealed eight Petri dishes containing what appeared to be biological materials.
	And again, you can see a picture of what those Petri dishes look like that the custom agents found, but they did not specify in their filing the exact type of biological materials that those were.
	Then you fast forward two weeks and you get package number three.
	Quote, on October 7th, 2024, Han was listed as a shipper for a package manifested as a quote-unquote letter to recipient one's home.
	An inspection of the package revealed plasmids with the markings HA Cluck1 RAT.
	Again, unclear what that was as well.
	And then lastly, five months later, Ms. Han sent the fourth package that was intercepted by the feds.
	Quote.
	On March 1st, 2025, Han was listed as the shipper for a package manifested as a letter to recipient two's home.
	And just to pause here and clarify something, I simplified what was written in the court documents, but actually the documents said that recipient one and recipient two's home address were the same, the same apartment in the same building.
	Now it's not exactly clear whether they live together or what their relationship is to one another.
	All we know is that these Chinese Wuhan packages were arriving for them in one apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
	Getting back to package number four, quote, an inspection of the package yielded a book with an envelope tucked into the middle of the pages.
	The envelope contained a handwritten note with 28 shapes and a labeling scheme with each shape.
	And then if you actually look at a photograph of what was sent, it was basically a piece of paper with a bunch of shapes drawn on it, and each shape having a different code attached to it.
	And then at the very top of the page, in order to, I guess, fool anybody that might find this piece of paper other than the recipient, Ms. Hahn wrote the following, quote, hello, this is a fun letter with interesting patterns.
	I hope you can enjoy the pleasure within it.
	Very cool, Ms. Hahn.
	I'm sure nobody will figure that one out.
	Now, in terms of what those shapes were, the ones that were drawn on that particular piece of paper, here's what the FBI wrote, quote, nomenclature of the labels are consistent with biological materials related to C. elegans research.
	For example, a search of GOA-NLUC revealed that GO, G-alpha-O, has been shown to modulate neural activity in C. elegans.
	NLUC nano look luciferous is a small, highly stable enzyme used as a luminescent reporter protein in various biomedical research.
	Searches of the other labeled shapes yielded similar C. elegans related results.
	Based on my training and experience, plasmids are commonly shipped on filter paper and once received, are extracted using water-based solutions for further use in research.
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	Now, I might have mispronounced some of those terms, but basically, you can cut out the shape with a pair of scissors, dip it into water, and that way extract whatever biological elements Ms. Han was trying to ship.
	Now, it's unclear whether any of this stuff that Ms. Han was shipping over in these packages was either dangerous or banned.
	The indictment paperwork, it wasn't exactly clear, and it didn't provide enough details on what all this stuff actually was for us to be able to go in and determine whether it was some dangerous type of pathogen or not.
	However, though, regardless of whether it was dangerous or not, we do know two things.
	For one, Ms. Han was shipping it here from her lab in Wuhan, meaning that whatever she was shipping, she didn't just feel like she could make it here in America.
	She felt like she had to ship it over.
	And secondly, shipping this stuff without declaring it is patently illegal.
	In fact, if you go over to the USDA website, there's an option to search for whatever given organism requires a permit.
	And if you search for this particular roundworm, you find that a permit is required.
	And the requirement also extends to any transmitters or carriers of that particular roundworm as well.
	Now, the relevant law in question can be found in U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, specifically Title IX, Section 122.2, which says, quote, no organisms or vectors shall be imported into the United States or transported from one state or territory or the District of Columbia to another state or territory or the District of Columbia without a permit.
	And so at this point, it's really not looking good for Ms. Han.
	She's been sending over many of these packages to the United States containing these biological elements, which at the very least don't have the proper permits.
	Now, there could be more to it, but again, we don't know what she was sending, but at the very least, she didn't have the proper permits.
	However, there was a saving grace.
	The beauty of her being a Chinese citizen shipping this stuff to the US is that she was safe.
	China does not have an extradition treaty with the US, and so we can't really get to her.
	However, as I mentioned earlier, Ms. Han was not planning on staying in China.
	She was coming here to do research.
	And so, after getting her visa, she voluntarily hopped on a plane and flew over to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where she was immediately captured by federal agents at customs.
	They questioned her, and after initially denying knowing anything about these packages at all, she eventually folded and admitted to being the sender.
	Quote, Han stated she conducted research on C. elegans life cycles at Huajiang University and was intending to continue research at the University of Michigan Laboratory.
	While at Huajiang University, Han produced desired plasmids using E. coli.
	Han isolated the plasmids and injected them into C. elegans as the primary method to conduct her research.
	Based on my training and experience, plasmids are often used to introduce genetic modifications of organisms such as C. elegans.
	And again, it really does make you wonder that if all this work was truly on the up and up, it's not clear why she would have to mail these specimens in this secretive way rather than just remake them over in the Michigan lab.
	That's something that might just have to come out in the process of the actual trial.
	Regardless, though, there were four other interesting takeaways that came out of the interview between the federal agents and Ms. Han at the airport.
	The first thing was that she admitted to sending a lot more packages than just the four that were intercepted.
	Quote, Han could not recall exactly how many packages she had sent to the United States and estimated that she sent between five to ten packages.
	Han stated she was informed by Chinese couriers that several of the packages were lost in transit, meaning that Customs and Border Protection only intercepted somewhere between 20 to 40 percent of the packages she had sent.
	Secondly, she claimed that the recipients who were receiving these packages knew nothing about them.
	In fact, in that interview, she went so far as to, quote, characterize the shipments as surprises for recipient one and recipient two.
	Then, thirdly, despite working on her PhD at a major lab in China alongside other people who regularly do international work, she claims that she wasn't clear on the relevant law in this particular area.
	Quote, Han indicated that she wanted to send recipient two plasmids, but was not sure if she was allowed to send them.
	Therefore, Han and the male staff at Huazhong University of Science and Technology decided to send the package manifested as a letter.
	And then, lastly, and this is my personal favorite part: when the officers took Ms. Han's electronics from her, they found that all of them had been wiped three days prior to her coming to the U.S. And when she was asked why she did this, well, here is the exchange.
	Quote, Han stated she deleted the contents of her electronic device prior to coming to the United States.
	Han stated she deleted the content to start fresh while she was in the United States.
	Very cool.
	Now, unfortunately for her though, Ms. Han is now sitting inside a Detroit jail cell awaiting trial.
	Because she was deemed to be such a flight risk, she was not given any bail.
	She currently faces charges related to smuggling biological materials into the interior of the United States, as well as lying to federal agents while being questioned.
	If convicted, she faces upwards of 20 years in federal prison.
	And perhaps there's a bit of irony, irony because these two cases are technically completely unrelated, Ms. Han's court appearance was actually done right alongside Ms. Jane's court appearance.
	And Ms. Jane is the other Chinese researcher facing charges of importing illegal things into the United States.
	She's the one from our previous episode who was importing the fungus alongside her boyfriend.
	Here's how that played out.
	Quote, a handcuffed Ms. Han, age 28, wearing an orange Senilac County jail uniform, her ankles restrained by chains, said nothing beyond answering basic questions routed through a Mandarin translator.
	Minutes later, Jane, 33, appeared in an identical uniform, handcuffs, and chains and consented to detention.
	Again, these two cases are technically completely unrelated, and it's just pure cosmic coincidence that these two Chinese female researchers at the University of Michigan, both accused of smuggling biological material into the United States, received back-to-back court appearances.
	If you'd like to read more about Mrs. Han's case, including the entirety of the FBI's indictment against her, I will throw a link to it.
	You'll be able to find it down in the description box below this video if you're the type of person that likes to dig into the weeds.
	And also in the comments section, let me know what you think.
	Because again, just as in the other case we mentioned in our previous episode, as I'm reading this indictment, I'm oscillating between thinking, maybe it's a naive viewpoint, but I view her as just a scientist who's ambitious, looking to do research, and looking to either look the other way or bend the rules in order to just progress her scientific inquiries.
	Basically, maybe she was able to, through a lot of hard work, create these plasmids or isolate these genes or proteins, and then she wants to go to the University of Michigan to continue her research without having to remake them.
	Maybe she doesn't speak English well enough and she doesn't feel like she understands the equipment at the new laboratory, and therefore she just wants to speed up her own development and to ship them over there and just to continue her research.
	That's one way to view it.
	The other way to view it is that she was doing this illegally.
	She could have gotten the permits.
	Why didn't she get the permits?
	Because you could, apparently, if she was sending what she claimed she was sending, then very likely she could have just gone through the normal process and get a permit.
	Maybe she didn't know how, maybe she didn't want to go through the process of doing it.
	Maybe it's a hassle.
	I don't know.
	There's also, of course, the CCP element behind it because it's tied to the other case.
	So it's like, is there a CCP conspiracy at hand here?
	Are they shipping these things in, doing something with them at a local lab in Michigan, and then releasing them into the interior of the United States?
	I hope not, but you never know.
	It is worth noting that that is specifically not what the feds are charging in either of these two cases.
	They're only charging them for smuggling and lying to federal agents.
	And so I don't know.
	Is that a naive viewpoint?
	Do you think there's more to it?
	Do you think that even though in the very specifics of these two cases, even though you can't charge these individuals with this broad conspiracy because there's not enough technical evidence in each individual case, do you think that when you take a step back and you see the sort of mosaic that each individual case paints, that it is a conspiracy and that there's something afoot?
	And then lastly, the same question I asked in the previous episode, I'll ask again, do you think that the United States should be allowing these Chinese researchers into the United States, given the fact that China is a country ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, who has a mandate, I guess, what would you call it, a mandate that they themselves claim to destroy the United States and to become the global hegemon.
	Should we allow people from a country like that to be able to come into the United States to do scientific research?
	I'd love to know your thoughts.
	Please leave them in the comments section below.
	I'll be reading them later tonight as well as well into the week.
	And then lastly, if you haven't already for some odd reason, please do smash that like button.
	That way this video can reach ever more people.
	And if you appreciate content like this, which of course sometimes takes days, sometimes a week, longer episodes take months to put together, smash that subscribe button as well so that you will receive updates of every episode as soon as we publish them as long as YouTube is not playing their shenanigans.
	And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epoch Times.
	Stay informed.

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