Chinese duo held over ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’: A look at China-linked outbreaks that disrupted life worldwide

Two Chinese nationals were reportedly accused of smuggling a "dangerous biological pathogen" into the United States for research at a University of Michigan Laboratory. The pathogen was said to have the potential to be used as an agricultural terrorism weapon. The US Department of Justice on Tuesday identified the pathogen as Fusarium graminearum.

The US department said Fusarium graminearum is a fungus that was classified in scientific literature as a potential "agroterrorism weapon". In a statement, it said that the fungus causes "head blight" in some crops and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses globally each year. “Head blight” is a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice.

"Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock," the US Department of Justice said.

The two accused Chinese nationals were identified as Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34. According to an FBI criminal complaint, Zunyong Liu, 34, a researcher currently in China, brought the fungus into the US while visiting his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, 33, in July 2024.

They were charged in a criminal complaint "with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud," said US Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. A complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.

China has been under the scanner for allegedly being responsible for the outbreak of several diseases and pandemics. The coronavirus pandemic is the latest example. Here are times when China was held responsible for a virus outbreak, epidemics and pandemics:

1. Bubonic plague

The origin of bubonic plague has led to a heated debate among historians. According to Germany-based Max Planck Society, the plague first entered the Mediterranean in 1347 via trade ships transporting goods from the territories of the Golden Horde in the Black Sea. The rats on the ship brought with them the Black Death, the bubonic plague.

The Black Death is considered one of the deadliest epidemics in human history. It spread across Western Asia, Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe in 1346-53. According to the report, this first wave extended into a 500-year-long pandemic, the so-called Second Plague Pandemic, which lasted until the early 19th century.

Even as the origins of the Second Plague Pandemic have long been debated, one of the most popular theories has supported its source in East Asia, specifically in China, the report added.

Meanwhile, according to a New York Times report published in 2022, researchers found that the Black Death arrived in 1338 or 1339 near Issyk-Kul, a lake in a mountainous area just west of China in what is now Kyrgyzstan.

"The plague first infected people in a small, nearby settlement of traders eight years before it devastated Eurasia, killing 60 percent of the population," the report added.

2. Asian flu in 1957

It's alleged that the pandemic of 1957-1959, dubbed the Asian flu, emerged in East Asia. The Lancet Journal said the virus emerged in China in the winter of 1957 and spread rapidly worldwide via ships, aeroplanes, and trains.

However, there are differing accounts of where the 1957 ‘Asian flu’ pandemic, which was caused by the new influenza A (H2N2) virus, originated. According to Reuters, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the virus was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, before spreading to Hong Kong in April and the US in the summer.

The pandemic killed 2 million people worldwide in a two-year period.

3. Coronavirus in 2002

The SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was first identified in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of southern China, Reuters reported. The epidemic affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8,000 cases in 2003.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that SARS cases were detected as early as November 2002 as part of an outbreak that emerged in China. It added that the pathogen causing the disease was identified as a coronavirus at the end of February 2003.

4. COVID-19 in 2019

The COVID-19 pandemic was also caused by SARS-CoV virus. However, the site of origin of the outbreak is still debated. On December 31, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in China had reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified.

Since then, several theories have been tabled to understand the origin of COVID-19 pandemic. The current argument revolves around two theories: one is the scenario of laboratory leak where the pathogen escaped from a laboratory, the other is human contact with zoonotic diseases.

China has been disputing the claims that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab or that it originated in China. The country recently suggested that the COVID-19 virus may have originated in the US.

"Substantial evidence suggested the COVID-19 might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China," stated the white paper released by the official Xinhua news agency earlier this year.