The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, Kash Patel, has announced the restart of a tough counter-spy operation against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that was previously halted during the Biden administration.
In an interview with “Just the News” on Friday, Patel stated, “Under the current leadership, the FBI has prioritized the threat posed by the CCP and has swiftly taken action.”
Following the restart of the anti-spy operation against the CCP, Patel revealed that the number of suspects arrested for engaging in spy activities on behalf of China increased by 40% in the first year of President Trump’s second term.
“In the past year, working in conjunction with President Trump, the Attorney General, and the Department of Justice, we have realigned our priorities in addressing evolving threats with a focus on combating, preventing, and monitoring CCP criminal activities,” explained Patel.
Patel emphasized that combating the threats posed by the CCP remains a top priority for the FBI.
He strongly criticized the Biden administration for shutting down the FBI’s internal “China Initiative,” calling it a “deliberate decision that is jeopardizing national security.” He revealed that this action has led to a surge in Chinese spy activities on American soil.
The “China Initiative” was a key counter-intelligence program within the FBI aimed at uncovering security threats posed by the CCP within academic circles. However, criticism was raised regarding whether law enforcement exhibited racial bias, as most of the suspects were of Chinese descent.
“President Trump made it clear when he came into office that we needed to change course. We don’t necessarily need a new initiative,” stated the FBI Director. “We simply need the FBI to fully focus on countering the CCP, and that’s exactly what we are doing.”
“We must continue to advance interagency cooperation to ensure that we combat every facet of CCP infiltration and attacks on our country. We will not relent,” he added.
Pointing out the malign intentions of the CCP towards the United States, Patel highlighted, “Who would cancel actions against our number one enemy – the CCP? They not only engage in espionage against Americans domestically but also conduct spy activities overseas, smuggling illegal biological pathogens to threaten our way of life.”
Patel referenced a case from 2025 involving Chinese students in Michigan smuggling dangerous microbes into the US.
“Just last year, we arrested three researchers from the University of Michigan who were attempting – not just attempting, but had already – illegally importing biological hazardous materials and pathogens into the US, which not only undermined our ability to establish pro-American research labs but also posed a threat to our agriculture and seed industries. Since then, we’ve been relentlessly investigating the matter,” he said.
In June 2025, the Department of Justice announced charges against two Chinese researchers, Yunqing Jia and Zunyong Liu, for “conspiring, smuggling goods into the US, making false statements, and visa fraud.” Jia was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, while her boyfriend Liu was studying at a university in China.
The DOJ stated that the FBI arrested Jia, while Liu was deported at the airport, on charges related to smuggling a fungus known as Fusarium graminearum into the US, which scientific literature lists as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon.
In September of the same year, the DOJ announced that another Chinese student, Chengxuan Han, “pleaded guilty to three counts of smuggling and making false statements to US Customs and Border Protection officers.” The DOJ mentioned that “Han shipped multiple packages from China to the US containing concealed biological materials,” with the recipients of these packages linked to personnel of a lab at the University of Michigan.
In November of that year, federal investigators announced that three more Chinese scholars were charged with “conspiring to smuggle biological materials into the US and making false statements to US Customs and Border Protection officials,” describing it as “the latest charges in a series of cases stemming from international research activities at the University of Michigan.”