We’re charged with conspiring to smuggle a fungus considered to be a potential agro-terrorism agent into the United States. Speaking of transparency, we sued the Education Department just the other day over a very important issue, which is China influence and money as it relates to the University of Michigan. You may recall that we were in a five-year battle with Qatar, the government of Qatar more or less, over their support for financial support for Texas A&M University. We eventually won because they didn’t want to tell us how much money they were giving Texas A&M, and it turned out they were giving them half a billion dollars more or less.

So we’ve got a lot of experience in this regard. We also just sued the Education Department about more records about Qatar’s influence operations here in the United States. You know, when it comes to the Middle East, a country like Qatar, they support terrorism, but of course they’re kind of an ally in certain areas with the U.S. So it’s kind of, I guess in the end, we have to remember there are foreign governments that the most charitable interpretation is, there are foreign governments with interests that sometimes align with the United States and often don’t. And that’s why we have an interest in figuring out if they’re messing with our institutions here.

Now, what do you think about China influence here in the United States? Do you want to know if they’re giving money to the University of Michigan, for example, and activities with other universities and institutions here in the United States? A lot of money sloshing around in these United States tied to foreign interests. Now, is it all illegal? No. But when they’re involved with a university like the University of Michigan, the American people have a right to know. So we sued here in D.C., the Education Department, again, we asked back in June, now the Education Department is largely being shut down, which is good riddance to that.

But I still hope they have some FOIA people over there that they can respond to our requests. All records of funding received by the University of Michigan from the government of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party, any Chinese national or associated entity, including records created or received by the Department pursuant to Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which is the portion of the federal law that requires reports of such monies to the federal government. All records and communications between any official Department of Education and any official Department of Justice or any component, thereof, regarding the University of Michigan’s Molecular Plant Microbe Interaction Laboratory.

I’m going to read that one more time, and I’ll bring it up here so you can see it. All records, Unit Molecular Plant Microbe Interaction Laboratory, and working group, excuse me. Now, do I need to tell you that that title suggests you don’t really want Chinese nationals working there generally or without wild scrutiny? So, you know, we filed the request, we narrowed the request, so they would have little excuse to provide us the information, but still, we’re not getting the information. And there’s a there there, because in January 2025, the University of Michigan announced it was ending its partnership with a prominent Chinese university.

A few months after five Chinese students in a joint program were charged with lying to the feds about suspicious activities outside a remote military site. So they were just using clearly this university partnership with the Chinese communists, the spy on America. And then in June of 2025, let me read it down, you can look at it, this is world worth focusing on, two Chinese nationals, Yangqing Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Michigan’s Molecular Plant Microbe Interaction Laboratory, and Zunyang Liu, her partner, were charged with conspiring to smuggle a fungus considered to be a potential agro-terrorism agent into the United States.

Zun later pled guilty to smuggling and making false statements and was sentenced to time serve. Liu was stopped at the Detroit Metro Airport in 2024 with concealed fungal samples and later deported. Separately, four other Chinese nationals have been charged with smuggling biological materials. So you’re all worried about COVID, they’re smuggling potentially, it looks like to me, dangerous agro-terrorism related materials into or as a result of affiliation within a program run by the University of Michigan. As I say in this release, we’re helping to keep an eye on tax supported universities with connections to hostile foreign governments such as China.

I want to know more about this, don’t you? I mean, we are on really a thin line between peace and conflict with China. And so activities like this are kind of a warning as to what might happen in the event of a conflict. I mean, even though COVID-19 was bad, what if our agricultural supply was harmed by this type of activity? What would happen here in the United States? I don’t even want to contemplate it. So this is an example of why I love Judicial Watch. Now, I’m president of Judicial Watch, I know, so you would think I love Judicial Watch.

But this is a FOIA case, right? In the end, this is like a transparency case, so we want the rule of law upheld there. But it’s not an important issue that much of the media would, I don’t even think there’s an ideological component here, it’s just that they don’t cover it. And it’s important, our national security is at risk as a result of these activities. The University of Michigan thought something was up and they cut off the money. So we want more details as to how much was being spent, especially as it relates to this sensitive program.

So I’ll let you know if we get anything, but we’ll see. China, China, China, right? Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and like our video down below. [tr:trw].

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