A Chinese student has pled guilty to smuggling biological material – namely, E. coli bacteria – into the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week.
According to a detailed in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Indiana report, a Chinese national, Youhuang Xiang, applied for a U.S. Non‑Immigrant student (J‑1) visa to perform postdoctoral research in the Department of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington. He successfully received the visa, and his time began in June 2023.
However, last year, the FBI “began investigating suspicious shipments from China to individuals affiliated with Indiana University,” according to the press release. Agents determined that Xiang, who holds a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, received a “suspicious” package in March 2024, The package itself came from Guangzhou Sci‑Tech Innovation Trading. Bizarrely, the package was labeled as containing “Underwear of Man-Made Fibers, Other Womens.”
This piqued the interest of agents, as it would be extremely odd for a Chinese national conducting research in the university’s Department of Biology to import women’s underwear from a Chinese tech company.
As a result, authorities interviewed Xiang in November 2025 following a research trip in the United Kingdom. It was during that interview that he admitted to wrongdoing.
Per the press release [emphasis added]:
During that interview, Xiang initially denied any knowledge of smuggling but subsequently admitted the shipping manifest for the package he received in March of 2024 was intentionally mislabeled and samples of DNA of E. coli bacteria were concealed in that package to circumvent U.S. law. Based on those admissions, CBP immediately terminated Xiang’s J‑1 visa, and he was arrested by the FBI.
The sentencing hearing took place on April 7, 2026, where it was determined that Xiang also lied about his status, as he is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Tom Wheeler, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a statement that Xiang “intentionally exploited his access to laboratory facilities at one of Indiana’s flagship research universities, and the privileges of his J‑1 visa status, to illegally smuggle biological materials into the United States.”
That, Wheeler continued, poses a national security risk to the U.S. and “poses a very serious threat to public safety and to the health of our agricultural economy.”
He continued:
Let me be clear: The Customs laws and regulations of the United States exist to protect our borders, our economy, and the citizenry of this Country. They may not be ignored at the whim and folly of scientific researchers and academic institutions. Our office remains firmly committed to working with our exceptional law enforcement partners to protect Hoosiers and defend the United States against such grave national security threats.
USDA Inspector General John Walk also made it clear that the CCP, once again, “exploited a federally funded research grant from USDA to smuggle dangerous biological material into the United States.”
This stands as the latest case of a Chinese student lying and smuggling biological material into the U.S In August, another Chinese national claiming status as a “visiting scholar” at the University of Michigan laboratory pleaded no contest to smuggling charges – biological materials yet again – as well as making false statements to authorities.
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