After the U.S. State Department announced it was revoking student visas of Chinese nationals, China expert Gordon Chang told AFN revoking the visas is a “drastic” but necessary decision because “drastic action” is long overdue.
“We know that many of these students have been engaged in espionage against the United States, perhaps as many as 13% of them according to one survey,” he told AFN in an interview.
Just two days after that AFN interview, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of two Chinese nationals, who are post-graduate researchers at the University of Michigan. One of the students, Yunqing Jian, is a post-doctorate expert on plant pathogens after studying them at Zhejiang University. She is now accused of smuggling a crop-destroying fungus, Fusarium graminearum, from China into the U.S. Its next destination was a research lab at the U of M.
Federal authorities allege the second Chinese national, Zunyong Liu, is an accomplice. A second expert on plant pathogens, he smuggled the pathogen into the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in July 2024.
Director Patel called their alleged plan an act of “agroterrorism,” since Fusarium graminearum ruins wheat, barley, maize, and rice. It also causes health problems in humans and livestock.
“This case is a sobering reminder,” Patel stated, “that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply…”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in his announcement about the revoked visas, said Chinese students will be targeted for removal if they have “connections to the Chinese Communist Party" or “if they’re “studying in critical fields.”
Jian and Liu likely meet that second criteria, since both of them are experts on the pathogen they allegedly smuggled into the U.S.
Jian also meets Rubio’s first criteria, too, since the FBI obtained a signed document from Zhejiang University in which she pledged loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
In a previous Fox News story, from 2024, it reported five Chinese nationals from the University of Michigan were arrested and charged with spying after authorities found photos taken during a military exercise at Camp Grayling, a National Guard military training facility.
Why would the CCP send students to take photos of military vehicles at a National Guard base? Because the Taiwanese military was conducting a joint training exercise at Camp Grayling at the time.
The link between alleged Chinese spies and the University of Michigan hasn't gone unnoticed by a Michigan lawmaker, state Sen. Aric Nesbitt. Citing the military base spying and now the pathogen smuggling, the Republican lawmaker said it's obvious China is exploiting our higher education system to conduct espionage.
For that reason, he said, he supports the Trump administration's plan to cancel student visas.
"The CCP is not our friend," Nesbitt told AFN in an email. "They will take every chance they can get to weaken us. These are no longer just red flags. It’s a five-alarm fire."

Back in the AFN interview, Chang said the U.S. government has known for decades that Chinese students who come to the U.S. are being watched closely by their own government when they arrive. They are often coerced into espionage activities, he said, by the Ministry of State Security back in China and by consular officials here in the U.S.
"We need to dismantle the networks that the Chinese regime has put in place in America,” he urged. “After all, these are meant to harm us. And this is our country. We have the means to stop this.”