Feds investigate University of Michigan amid alleged Chinese bio material smuggling cases

University of Michigan under federal probe due to biological material smuggling cases

Two Chinese scientists connected to the University of Michigan are being investigated for smuggling bio materials into the US, sparking the probe.

FOX 2 - The University of Michigan is under investigation after two Chinese scientists charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States were connected to the school in a pair of different cases.

The Education Department on Tuesday said the "highly disturbing criminal charges" raise concerns about Michigan’s vulnerability to national security threats from China.

The backstory:

As a result, the investigation is underway into the university’s foreign funding, citing the pair of cases that were announced days apart in June.

"Despite the University of Michigan’s history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence, recent reports reveal that UM’s research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage," said Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel of the department.

The investigation is digging into financial records from Michigan, along with information about research collaborations with institutions outside the U.S. The Education Department accuses Michigan of being "incomplete, inaccurate and untimely" in its public disclosures around funding from foreign sources.

Federal investigators brought charges in June against a Chinese scientist and his girlfriend — who worked at a lab at the University of Michigan — after the FBI said it halted their effort to bring a toxic fungus into the United States.

A few days later, a Chinese scientist who was arriving in the U.S. was arrested, accused of shipping biological material to a laboratory at the University of Michigan.

In June, the university said it condemned any actions that undermine national security and announced a review of protocols related to research security.

In a letter to the university, however, the Education Department said some school officials have downplayed the vulnerability of research collaborations with Chinese institutions.

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It focused on Ann Chih Lin, the director of the university’s Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly claimed the threat of technology theft from China is overstated.

"Lin’s apparent indifference to the national security concerns of the largest single source of funding for UM’s annual research expenditures — the American taxpayer — is particularly unsettling," Education Department officials wrote.

Federal law requires universities to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources totaling $250,000 or more.

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The law went mostly unenforced until Trump’s first term, when the Education Department opened a dozen inquiries into universities accused of underreporting foreign money.

The Biden administration closed most of those cases, but the effort has recently been renewed.

Many U.S. universities acknowledge research security should be improved, but caution against treating Chinese scholars with hostility and suspicion, saying only small numbers have been involved in espionage.

China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States.

President Donald Trump has made it a priority to increase transparency around foreign gifts and contracts to U.S. universities, especially those tied to China.

Similar investigations have been opened at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.