The US Department of Justice announced on July 13 (Monday) that Ziheng “Tony” Fang, a Chinese graduate student at San Jose State University (SJSU), was arrested by federal law enforcement officials on charges of spreading false information and making bomb threats on campus by posting notes with hate content and large-scale bomb attack threats in the campus restroom.
Fang, a 30-year-old resident of San Jose, is pursuing a master’s degree in data science at San Jose State University. According to the criminal complaint and court documents submitted on July 9, he is accused of affixing a note enclosed in a transparent plastic cover to the wall of a men’s restroom on campus.
The note, discovered on November 5, 2025, started with “Warning, there will be a large-scale bomb attack next week” and featured multiple Nazi swastika symbols. Fang’s fingerprints were found on the note by the authorities. Simultaneously, law enforcement officers also found another message on the restroom wall threatening to kill Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, and Mexican individuals, claiming to launch large-scale explosions on November 11 and 12.
The criminal complaint pointed out that since October 2024, San Jose State University police have documented over 20 instances of hate or threatening messages appearing in campus men’s restrooms and gender-neutral restrooms. Some messages listed specific dates for possible attacks and mentioned bomb threats, stabbings, and shootings as means of attack; the most recent related message was found on May 14 this year.
Investigators matched campus access records and found that in 18 instances requiring card access to enter relevant buildings, Fang had entered those buildings in 16 cases several days before the messages were discovered. Surveillance footage also showed that he had entered and exited the relevant restrooms or nearby areas the day before some threatening messages were found.
The Department of Justice stated that the school had repeatedly issued warnings to faculty and students via email and text messages before the specified attack dates mentioned in the messages. As a result, some professors canceled in-person classes or switched to online teaching, and campus police and authorities received numerous calls expressing concerns about campus safety. The court documents described that on the dates listed in the threat messages, some campus buildings were nearly empty.
Fang appeared in San Jose Federal Court on July 10 for the first time. At the time of the Department of Justice’s announcement, he remained in federal custody, scheduled to appear before Chief Federal Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins on July 13 to confirm the appointment of defense counsel.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, assisted by the San Jose State University Police Department, and jointly prosecuted by the Northern California Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice emphasized that the contents of the criminal complaint are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. ◇