Days after two Chinese scientists were accused of smuggling mushroom killing crops to the United States, the best American expert in China warned that if the country is not cautious, it could be “something worse” than Covid-19. He also suggested that the US government should interrupt relations with China.
Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, false statements and fraud with visas for alleged fungus Fusarium graminearum to the US and describing as potential agricultural terrorist weapons.
The fungus causes fungal head heads, usually known as “scab” and often infects wheat, barley and other grains on farms during rainy years.
According to the FBI, Liu had a hidden mushroom in his backpack last year. After claiming ignorance of plant material in them, he said he plans to use them for research at the University of Michigan Laboratory, where Jian worked.
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“War Warning Against Us”: Expert
Fox News said in the commentary on this case that the conduct of the couple is similar to the war against the United States.
Chang, who lives and worked in China for two decades as an advisor to the US law firm Paul Weiss, warned that if the US did not take strong measures – such as interrupting ties with China – could face even more serious threats than Covid.
The origin of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which caused the global pandemic of Covid-19, remains very controversial, while some experts claim that it could be created in the Chinese laboratory.
He said “attack on the United States”, Chang said, “Xi JinPing says he’s going to war all the time and mobilizing all Chinese society to go to war.”
“So we can lose our country, even if we are a much stronger nation, because we do not praise with the vitality and determination that is necessary,” he added.
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He suggested that the only way to stop it is to interrupt relations with China.
“I know that people think it’s drastic, but we’re amazed. In the end we’ll be hit. We’ll hit really hard, not just with Covid, not just with Fentanyl, but maybe something worse,” the expert said.
However, agriculture experts with whom Reuters asked for more than a century in the US, can be prevented by spraying pesticides and is only dangerous if it is regularly and in large quantities.
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“It would be quite ineffective as a weapon,” said Reuters Jessica Rutkoski, a professor of science crops, wheat breeder and geneticist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Chapaign.
Rutkoski and other scientists said that extensive testing for mushroom toxin, widespread use of fungicides and the difficulty of deliberately generating an infection with a pathogen would make it a clumsy weapon.
(Tagstotranslate) China
