According to a tactical intelligence report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Yahoo News has accessed, agents at the US Border and Customs Department at Detroit Metro Airport blocked a scientist. China carried bottles suspected of containing the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in November 2018.
"The examination of the writing on the vials and the identity of the recipient led the inspectors to believe that the contents of the vials may be part of the MERS and SARS viruses," the report said.
According to Yahoo News , the bottles are labeled "Antibodies." The Chinese biologist said he was asked by a colleague in China to deliver the bottles to a researcher at an American research institute. The FBI report did not reveal the Chinese scientist’s identity.
The report also pointed out a number of other similar incidents involving Chinese people, including one that occurred in May 2018 and in September 2019 when Chinese citizens sought to enter the U.S. with Suspected samples are influenza viruses and E. coli.
“The Council of Weapons of Mass Destruction assessed that foreign scientific researchers who carried undeclared biological samples and recorded into the United States in checked or hand luggage, near as would undoubtedly pose a biosecurity risk to the US, ”the report stated.
The FBI did not specify what biosecurity risk posed by the incidents. However, Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said that the FBI seemed interested in "dual-use research, including bioterrorism."
Retired Air Force General Robert Spalding, who has been in charge of China affairs at the National Security Council in President Donald Trump’s administration, admits there is "a threat" posed by the Chinese carrying Biological sample enters the US. However, he did not rule out the possibility that the person who brought those samples into the United States would act "unknowingly" and not know what they were carrying.
The FBI is still intensifying its efforts to deal with China’s espionage campaign in recent months, after admitting failure to prevent China from implementing the "Thousand Talents" plan to recruit Chinese American studies.
“Given what we know today about the threat of Chinese plans, we wish that the former could act more quickly and comprehensively. Now is the time to fix that, ”John Brown, assistant director of the counterintelligence division at the FBI, told a Senate committee in November 2019.
The FBI report was published by Yahoo News at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic was booming worldwide after starting from China.
China has not responded to the report.
